Poems
by Lloyd Howell
Here are three poems related to Donna’s offering. Her silent determination is overwhelming, many of her friends and acquaintances have no idea . [Of course, I too was ready to get on the altar but a history of kidney stones precluded such.]
Two regarding her first donation-related trip to Korea in March of this year:
A True Mother - New Life
She is brimming with optimism and anxiousness
as she awaits a midnight taxi to a plane
taking her to Korea
where doctors will determine
if one of her kidneys is a match
for her son, almost 40,
with two children, 11 and 14,
living there now more than 20 years.
Her smile beams with hope and joy
at the possible honor of being able to give,
once again,
of her very self to her very son.
If all goes well
with this labor [of love],
he’ll be born a second time.
Spring is clearly here
Spring is clearly here
in Florida but, for the first time,
you are not.
The rose bushes newly green,
bloom red,
spear-like the canna push their lush leaves
heavenward,
fallen pine needles warmed in the sun
exude aromatic scent,
caterpillars dangle
from oak branches,
bees are busy,
I sneeze all too frequently,
mockingbirds serenade
deep into the night . . .
Spring is clearly here
but this time you are not
and by the time you return [from Korea]
the azaleas may no longer be pink
Below, one related to her 2nd donation-related trip to Korea in May of this year:
The Donation
Soon, she will be donating
a kidney, to her son.
Not lightly,
but neither with hesitation.
Instinctual, primal –
a no brainer.
As natural as tectonic shift,
and equally unstoppable.
She’s climbed the mountains, swam the oceans –
all second nature.
She’s grown wings,
to fly above ordinary things.
Like a salmon on the go she swims upstream;
her body to feed her roe.
Nothing can stop the flow –
all obstacles she will overflow.
Her mother’s heart beats
and selfishness retreats.
She’s a 5-foot 2-inch giant –
towering among the ancestors.
A North Star –
for her descendants.
She spreads her branches
always shading and sheltering her lineage.
5/22/25
I wonder what poem will be written about her 3rd actual donation trip in June.
Hmm, perhaps one juxtaposing altar and operating table, isn’t it freaky how they are eerily similar.
Kind of a twist from Abraham offering his son. Now a parent offers herself for her son.
