Falling Well
It was the time for our time together…
You, my once, my now and tomorrow,
absent from our afternoon ride
on the high road along the cliff.
___
Not in the cloud breaks
or the white caps today;
not waiting on the point
where the lovers met and married,
then fled to a reluctant heaven.
___
Further along the trail, I find you
sitting with the man
in the ditch
touching bones
beneath his too big navy peacoat,
asking his name.
___
Are you hurt?
Can you move?
Don’t try to stand.
Just sit here.
Tell me your name,
brushing dirt from his back.
___
Yes, Bill, new sneakers can be tricky.
Looking up and down the empty trail:
Are you alone?
No phone?
___
Her name is Joan?
She’s down the beach
collecting egg-shaped rocks
to paint with your granddaughters for Easter?
___
It’s Good Friday;
I’d forgotten.
___
Charles will find her;
I’ll sit with you awhile,
and we will talk.
∞
What was it like to work at Johnson Wax
for all those years?
Still family owned, you know.
Did you work at headquarters,
in that building by Frank Lloyd Wright,
with the lily pad columns
holding up the ceiling?
I did.
How fun was that!
∞
Falling well?
It means you don’t fall alone, Bill.
But you’re not alone,
so you’ve fallen well.
___
Bloody hand but nothing broken.
No, I don’t think your mask made you fall.
Your treatments stopped just yesterday?
___
Dizzy, yes,
I often am or was.
My treatments are done,
nothing more to do.
I can’t fall; I am well.
___
Water, Bill. Water!
Better to pee in the woods
than pass out in a ditch.
The water keeps you from falling.
You need a phone for when you do.
___
You say you want peace?
Is this peace?
A stranger yelling at you in a ditch?
It can be your Joan Phone.
Nobody needs to know
except when you fall,
then you can fall well,
someone there to catch you.
∞
Are you Joan?
What happened?
Running toward me,
dropping little eggs along the trail.
I have a first aid kit.
I’m his nurse now; I always have one.
Let me get it.
Bring some water.
___
Really,
it was just a few minutes.
He was fine.
Just a few minutes.
Really.
___
It’s grandma camp.
I could use real eggs,
but I want them to last
until next year.
Want it all to last.
Just a few minutes!
___
Bill’s father’s name was Charles.
Charles is a good name.
Your mother raised a good son, Charles.
My mask is wet now.
∞
Here, Bill, drink some of this.
Feeling better?
Bill gets up from falling well:
I’ve kept you from your ride; it’s getting late.
You must want to get home, Charles.
I am home, Bill.
___
I want to get you something for this.
What can I get you?
Some water?
I laugh.
You can buy yourself a phone, Bill.
So you can fall well.
___
Fall well, for me, my friend.
Then get up.
Happy Easter.
∞
You, my once, my now and tomorrow,
as to Emmaus came
and sat with Bill and me
in that dark and dirty ditch,
on that declining day,
in that narrow time,
smiling that magnificent, maskless smile,
in the waning winter sun.
