GOODBYE / HELLO, DAD
As we said goodbye, we said hello, for there was so much
that we didn’t know about each other.
Each time I came I knew I might not see you again,
So, I said goodbye in all the ways I knew.
I knelt by your bed and held your hand,
asked you things I’d have never done if we weren’t saying goodbye.
I opened myself I shared from my heart
I risked looking foolish in your eyes, because we were saying goodbye.
I read you poems and talked of God,
Sent you certain books and sang you songs,
Deeds I’d have felt too vulnerable to do if we weren’t saying goodbye.
Because each time together was a goodbye, considerations changed.
Things like vulnerability, criticism, being right, lost their importance.
Isn’t it beautiful and ironic that in finding the courage to say goodbye,
In fact, I found the means to say hello?
Published as a Commended Poem in the book of Sunrasia Literary Awards, Australia, 1992.