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Pam Baggett <br /> 8800 Wilkerson Road <br /> Cedar Grove NC 27231 <br /> 919-537-2164 <br /> nightair@mindspring.com <br /> A Love Poem <br /> Don't read this now. <br /> Save it for the first night you lie down <br /> to face an empty side of the bed, <br /> for the afternoon your best friend tells you <br /> her chemo isn't working anymore. <br /> For the day your mother, so polite, <br /> asks who you are. <br /> Store it in the one cookbook you'll never toss <br /> into the donation box. Slip it beneath <br /> your mattress, or into the closet that holds <br /> the emergency flashlights, canned food, <br /> and bottled water. Tape it to the bottom <br /> of your television, some place you can remember <br /> when your throat constricts, your hands <br /> cannot stop shaking. <br /> Unfold the paper then, beloved stranger, <br /> and know that I, too, have stared out the window <br /> trembling, have reached for the phone <br /> with no one left to call. I have paced countless <br /> hours, silently begging for the cure that never came. <br /> And when each crisis passed, I looked <br /> out at the world and saw that I loved you— <br /> for your fear and self-absorption, <br /> your cramped chest, bloodshot eyes, <br /> loved you for the crumpled tissue clutched <br /> in your hand, the one you can't make yourself <br /> let go. I am out here, I am standing <br /> at the window, too, while the night hums <br /> around us, alive with pain, with prayers and lullabies. <br />