Song of the Hospice Provider

    by Scot Siegel

Leah leans over a warm porcelain basin

rinses stiff maple syrup from a crystal dish

Winter sun strikes one side of her drawn face

in variegated shafts through the dusty panes

For years, she helped him remember himself,

arranged trophies on the shelf in his study

She touched his wrist at the right time of day

& poured warm tea for the two of them

But he became steam rising from the rim of a

chipped cup; a low fog lifting 

from a reed-lined pond, caught in the lee

of a low grassy hill

scuttled by the sun––

© 2010 Scot Siegel

Scot Siegel lives in Oregon with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of one full-length poetry collection, Some Weather (Plain View Press, 2008), and two chapbooks, Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications, 2009) and Skeleton Says (Finishing Line Press, 2010). A second full-length poetry collection is due out from Salmon Poetry in 2012. Siegel works as an urban planner and serves on the board of trustees of the Friends of William Stafford. www.pw.org/content/scot_siegel