If you want to talk
About life and/or death
About something or about nothing
About nothingness
If you want to walk
Out amongst the trees, birds, clouds, sky,
Sun, stars, or moon
Or within the fertile landscape
That is your imagination
If you want to cry and hold a hand
Or be hugged
Or be given space
If you want to laugh
At nothing at all
At what is absurd, at what isn???t
At the moment, at eternity
If you want to share silence
Empty or full
If you want to tickle your auditory nerves
With poetry, with song, with music to
Vibrate your soul
If you want to be distracted from your discomforts
If you want to meditate
If you want to explore your nightmares, visions, or terrors
Or the imagery of your illness
If you just want to be,
Wherever you are
However you are
And need a companion
To be with you
Or near you
In body
Or spirit
Know
If you want to
You can call on my name
Neal Klein’s wife, Emilee, died in 2017 utilizing Regional Hospice’s services. Neal wrote this poem as a way to process his grief.