A Poem for Andy – Waiting for Surgery on July 12th, 2018

Arbutus on Maple Mountain. New pale green skin showing through.

Waiting

A sound so loud:
a dry leaf falling.
The ground littered
with yellow silences.
I walked here with you
once, the Arbutus grove, their leaves
dropping and their copper
peeling, the new-skin green
underneath. New skin.
How many times dear Lord
our new skin? Each
green silence?

Richard Osler, unpublished 2018

It is not often I feature a poem of mine in a blog. But I wanted to share this small poem I wrote after hearing that my dear friend Andy Parker from Houston, Texas was having kidney surgery on Thursday, July 12th to remove what is likely a cancerous tumour.

The 12th is an auspicious day in my family. My son Alex’s birthday and the birthday of my great uncle, Sir William Osler, the celebrated physcian. I hope it will turn out to be an auspicious day for Andy. A day when his full recovery begins. That new skin.

Peeling Arbutus in Montague Harbour, Galiano Island, B.C.