I found her sitting for the last time
in that comfortable chair
on her beloved front porch
where each day for who knows how long
she has sat
observed the neighborhood
waved at friends
entertained guests
and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells
of the place her home has occupied these fifty years.
“I don’t have a very good attitude,” she said,
as my heart filled with grief
and my mind’s eye saw the view
from her new “place”—tree-less commercial construction everywhere.
How can we not become attached
to place and things and people
since our nature embraces beauty in all?
How can we not meld into our environment
in almost indivisibility?
How can God’s Spirit compensate when
our oneness with creation is torn in two?
Oh, Lord, have compassion!
Ann Glover O’Dell
2 July 2018
Ann Glover O'Dell 