"Rectification"

In honor of National Poetry Month, I will be posting new work by myself every Wednesday in April.
Here is "Rectification."

Rectification

It takes me a while to find you again.
I come across you in the lobby of a building,
waiting to be seen, but forgotten, too scared to ask.
You stayed, not knowing where to go or what to do.

You phone crying from another country, Germany perhaps,
you don’t know why or how you got there.

No one would tell me but I discovered what hospital they took you to.
In a dark room, drapes drawn, glow from a TV screen,
hooked to machines with needles, you are gaunt, smaller, nearly dead.

I’ll get you out, take you home, where you belong.

Each time the tsunami comes, murderous wall of sea,
hanging, hovering for a moment before crushing down,
I yell to you, “run, run to me,” but you can’t.

I’ll run to you, carry you to safety.
Maybe this time it will work.
Maybe this time…

© JEF 2015