Poem: Kendall Merriam

The Heart and Two Wings

Kendall Merriam
Thu, 03/18/2021 - 7:45am
Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland. He has a history degree from Gordon College and pursued graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

    For Kathleen Harper, MD

    She considers every angle

    every beat

    topped by lovely curly silver hair

    over ridiculous pink sneakers

    she changed my meds

    for the better

    trying to avoid a cutting

    but if she says I need

    to pace myself

    I will

    trusting her will and knowledge

    implicitly

    I do not know

    how to write about her fully

     knowing nothing of her life

    outside the Hospital 

    but that is enough

    she sees so many

    she works nights and Saturdays

    she calls Phyllis, my wife

    regularly so she won’t worry

    a boon of words

    for us both

    hardly separated  almost sixty years

    a week ago I wanted to kill myself

    now I want to live forever

    writing poems, writing plays

    writing from my heart

    which Dr. Harper keeps beating

     

    Kendall Merriam, Togus V. A. Hospital, room 328-2 March 11, 2021 10:07 AM

    Listening to my neighbor on the phone.

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