The Kindness Of Simply Letting Go Poem by RIC BASTASA

the son is too cruel to keep
her 90 year old mother alive
still alive

diabetic at first it was her gangrened
toes which were severed from her foot
then the foot followed suit
the lower leg then finally
the upper leg

the cutting stops an inch below the
genitalia
you cannot cut the large intestines anymore
the doctor says

i once told him that on my part
i live in a shack on top of a hill where i set all the pigeons free
on their wings they finally go with the final wind
i never ask them to come back

the cold winds from faraway blows my hair
o how fresh o how beautiful is their passing

merely passing by, just merely passing by
my hands really never really hold on any of them

letting go, letting go, that is what kindness is all about