The Quiet Harbor

“It’s cancer”, said the sad doctor,

“And it’s spread everywhere.

There’s very little we can do,

But offer hospice care.”

She felt the world shift under her

Like a wind roughened sea.

The quiet sail into old age,

That she’d planned carefully,

Had suddenly become rough waves

That tossed her in its wake;

And she was not quite certain, then,

Just how much she could take.

But she looked up to see a face

That wasn’t the doctor’s,

And in it she found promise of

Safe harbor that was hers.

She trimmed her sails and changed her course,

Choosing to follow him.

The seas were wild, but she grew calm,

Her fears seemed much less grim.

She turned into the vast unknown,

Her sails billowed and bright,

Yearning to reach his safe harbor

Of calm waters and light.

Her family wept, but she was calm,

She knew she rode the tide

That he had calmed, with just a word,

And he was by her side.