Recovery

A mini chocolate bear (teddy like) delivered to your hospital bedside My gift of recovery in sugar enticement I lie, "It's skim milk thin." The sheen on your smile tells me truth is an empty room You break apart the bear's ear to feed me joy Taste of hypnotic buzz like a Van Gogh sky I touch your stitches stitching survival to smooth out creases My love, yearning for a cleansing spring Puncture wounds of care Unavoidable reality Healing hope, the perk of sun You take the red ribbon from the bear's neck and slip it onto your finger Spirited charm to re-clasp love Heartfelt ties sharper than skin therapy Seizing chances that change shape as we reach for them For sometimes life strays to alien Must everything fade to prognosis? What endures? Your generous embrace of resistance that doesn't melt like chocolate A tranquil loyalty, easily knotted, like your hospital gown devotion that clocks the time between us the past, a brash transparency, plots something new Our world, no longer wrapped like candy as we shake it well to spin us out of grim Poem revised October 7, 2022