POETRY

I Sent Yellow Flowers

a poem for the grieving

Once you took my hand and we laughed together, our feet in the cool waters at Murray’s Mill. Life breathed through your body against all the odds of illness and hardship. You rolled the cuffs of your pants and took each bare-footed step with me. Every happy moment with you was a celebration of all life. You’d ruminate on the joy for weeks.

You looked for flowers. Yellow ones. The color that brought you the most joy.

I picture you dancing there, feet in the trickling stream, running your fingers through the waters, celebrating the feel of it on your skin. You are no longer afraid of snakes. Breathing comes smooth and effortlessly. Your body moves in a dance with the earth, though your skies are now the golden hue of Heaven.

Now the hand is Jesus’ hand and He welcomes you. I can hear you sing.

No more pain. No more fear. No more struggle of lungs and heart and liver…but one body, clean of all the burdens you’ve carried, bearing only joy. I am sure you still seek yellow flowers — but now I know you find them everywhere.

I sent yellow flowers to your family. It seems a small thing to do but what can be done when the heavens have opened for you and left them all behind? My prayer for them is that the memory of your laugh never fades in their minds and they may see your smiling face in the yellow, across the fields and meadows alight with bees and butterflies, that they may see your strength in the trees and your perseverance in the coming and going of rain.

I remember you now; yellow, sunny, happy, free.

This prose poem is a follow-up to a free verse poem about the same person (also published here in Scribe). She passed away last night and is now free from her illness, though now her family mourns. Sometimes, all you can do is send yellow flowers and write a poem and hope somehow it offers comfort to the grieving. Thank you for reading.