WHEN I WOKE I WAS HERE

The 98-year-old ancestral aunt tells how she arrived

at the care facility after her fall and hip repair.

We found her in the cafeteria eating a dry roll

and cold oatmeal. She describes her flight

while talking to our granddaughter:

Air Force One, oh my, what a plane.

Did you see it when you came in?

Oh,Lord, goodness. It's a plane.

There's nothing like it coming down.

And Obama, good God,

I never asked to be on his plane.

But he is, why Jim, tell Sammie,

he is the President, and that plane!

Well. I never expected

to fly on Air Force One.

Ethel was there. She died

when she was 83. My old partner

at the restaurant. She was right beside me.

And your mother, Jim.

Lucille was sitting on the other side of me.

We were all there. The three of us.

The plane itself was like cut in half.

I can't describe it any clearer than that,

how we got here. The plane.

To be on that plane.

It just broke in half.

I don't know how we landed.

When I woke up, I was here.

Jim Bodeen

18 April--12 June 2016

TWO GARDEN MEDITATIONS

Karen likes to sit on her perch

on the deck, watching birds

feed in the birches, looking

down into the garden

where I have made my descent

placing my notebook

on the small table made from staves

from a wine barrel. Before

I followed Williams into Paterson,

when I was still following others

into Williams, the descent beckoned

and called and I knew the all of it

without needing to know more.

Decades before this sanctuary

became a promise. Descending,

I was able to live among, living close,

in shifting community, now shaded,

among shade trees with histories

going back to Dante. Karen sets

herself before birds, trees in ceramic

pots, and stones come from fire

and washed into strange stories

over tens of thousands of years,

one image of creation. Late morning,

in a chair with notebook and pruners,

I don't write much, but look up

at trees from below, getting up

from time to time, taking a branch

growing crosswise into a tree's interior.

Cutting it allows more light

to branches needing encouragement.

Both seats contain memories

accessing renewal of sorts.

We are done with accomplishment

even though we have chosen our places,

I chant, Ground the love! Ground the love!

Jim Bodeen

11 June 2016