A woman in San Francisco
has your heart,
I mean literally,
has
your heart
beating inside of her chest
the systolic and the
diastolic pressure
the arterial and the
venous the
same heart that stopped beating inside of you
is beating inside of
someone else.
A man in Fresno
has your kidneys,
I mean literally,
he has one of your kidneys
filtering the blood inside of his body.
His daughter called on the telephone,
she cried and gasped for air through the speaker,
we all listened and held our breath.
She said thank
you thank
you thank you
but she was not thanking us,
she was thanking you.
The kidney
took well,
she said, the body accepted the kidney,
her father accepted the kidney,
she accepted the kidney,
everyone thankful for the gifts
that you were left giving away.
The woman with your heart, would have
died, they said. Would not
have survived,
she had—
she has
three small children.
We have one small child,
we had—
one small child,
we used to have you.
You did not survive, but the woman with the
heart, with all of the children, the one in the bay,
she made it okay.
A man in Fresno has one of your kidneys.
His daughter called us on the telephone,
we all listened on speaker as she cried,
as she gasped for air.
We held our breath as she said thank you
thank you thank
you,
but she was not thanking us,
she was thanking you.
She said her father has been waiting six years for a kidney,
that the kidney took well, that his body
accepted the pound of flesh that you
were left
giving away.
A woman in San Francisco has your heart.
I mean literally, she has your heart, pounding
inside of her chest.
A letter came in the mail, it said she had,
it said she has,
three small children, it said
without your donation she would not have survived.
The man with his kidney, the woman with
her heart,
your body
quartered
and divided
and given away.
As a woman in an ICU
hovered above you,
reading all of our words,
all of our sentiments,
our deepest love,
thrown into the void,
hopefulness towards a future
that we were all left giving
away.