Shore

I'm currently in London visiting my daughter and her family. For those of you who routinely follow this blog, you already know she was diagnosed with breast cancer about 18 months ago. I am very glad to say she made it through chemo and surgery and radiation with her spirits intact, is back at work, and is doing well.

Of course, I wrote several poems about her long journey from my own perspective. And, more importantly, she has given me the OK to share some of them. Two of which will surface this Sunday and next.



Shore


The sea shifted the moorings,
stranding me on the wharf,
as cancer, a tidal wave, dragged my daughter.

Left me, a physician, to pace
like parents I once counseled,
on a desolate beach, all
afraid of spying any debris from chemo.

Used to piloting the rescue,
able to pinpoint each trickster reef,
I lean into the wind but the sand shifts
as I watch others fight to save her.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor