The Surgeon's Gift

The gift came wrapped in the most unusual materials:
Chemicals on a cotton swab, a band-aid, an x-ray.
Utterly unknown by the giver, it was nevertheless delivered with
care-ful and generous hands, warmed by the compassion
that was the gift.

He was a stranger in more ways than one:
An unfamiliar brand of surgeon, not known by me,
unaware—perhaps—of his own healing power.

Yet his presence (presents) stirred within me,
both strange and familiar, soulful, uncanny, welcomed.
Unknown to the giver, he awakened in me a call from life,
to be, to dwell, toward openness.

“This is the stuff of life,” we seemed to agree.
Bandages delivered with warmth; a witness to suffering;
bearing pain; dwelling;
and the melancholy that comes with knowing this is all there is.

Like the vanishing moment of a tender kiss
Never to be had again, it was somehow enough.
Unknown to the giver, he touched me with the lips of life,
offering an overflowing sense of love
that was the gift.