"Do Everything"

He lays in his hospital bed,
frail, exhausted,
after a “routine” MRI last evening
had been read overnight,
the results conveyed this morning:
“5cm tumor of the left frontal convexity of the skull,”
one star in a constellation of metastases
speckled over his skeleton.

He stares me down
raises a finger
declares that he’s a fighter
(which I know, by now)
and tells me to promise him
to do everything.

Well then.
Everything’s a big ask
but then
everything always is.

He tells me to listen
to him and his family,
to the story of his story,
to know how he is, how he got here,
where he thought he was going,

to try to comprehend the incomprehensible,
this shatter-glass vertigo of
dread, denial,
despair.

He tells me to lift
him from bed for an
admittedly unsteady
walk down the hallway.
He tells me to lift
up his weathered spirit
on wings of will and wishes.

He tells me to talk
with his wife and his doctor,
to talk about the years ahead
and what to do with them
to talk him through the tornado
that has whirled down upon him.

He tells me to care
for his mind as I care
for his brain, and to care
for his soul as I care
for his heart.

He asks me to stay for just a moment.
I tell him I have a few moments to give
before everything comes knocking.

#NaPoWriMo 12/30