Side By Side Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Side by side we drive
Ocean to both east and west
Clouds rising high in the summer sky
Water aqua marine to the left
Purple gray to the right
As we glide along a narrow road
That runs astride a strip of sand.

Some stretches of the beach are pristine
Others are cluttered with washed up plastic.
Such is life, I think to my window
As my eyes try to curate out the rubbish
So that I can retain the images that please me.

We have just left a respected mentor
Who has shared the news of his impending death
His voice still strong, his back still straight,
His eyes look off into the distant past
And return to the present, and his options
And his decision.

He finds his wife's eyes
And then they turn together
To face his friends with a strength
That helps me find mine.
I will not cry.
I will not flinch.
I will sit and listen to him.

In a way, he is fortunate.
He cannot change his fate,
But he can meet it head on.
He can live as he chooses.
He can let Nature take him
At Her own pace.

As I watch him walk away
Attended by his tiny wife
I see the strength in her disposition
And the acceptance they have bridged.

I turn away from my window
To take in my husband's profile
As he, lost in his own thoughts,
Seems to soften and age, as if sinking
Into a recognition of his own mortality.

And so we drive on silently
Allowing the blue of the sky
And the green of the sea
And our flow along this windy coast
To ease our distress for our friend
And find strength in our common direction.