Poems

by Lloyd Howell

1950poet@gmail.com


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.

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Peter and Paul