At Sunrise…
By Cara Chang Mutert
Watching the sunrise today, I’m missing you deeply.
I feel it everywhere. In my gut, in my heart, in my bones, down into the depth of my being.
Where does the soul go? I saw it leave you, or what I remember you to be.
Wherever you are, you are a part of me. I am a part of you. I see it in my face.
“You look like me,” you said, as you looked back at me in the mirror.
“It feels good,” you said, when I held your hand.
When it became so difficult for you to speak, I heard you say, I know you said, “I love you.”
When it took all your effort to open your eyes, I saw you, for just a brief second, smile at me.
As the rest of the world sleeps, when only the two of us and the birds are awake, maybe we are together.
Or maybe I am alone now.
But as I sit here, with the morning sun cresting just above the trees,
I hope I am still sitting with you, and that you are still by my side.
As tears stream down my face, I saw a blue heron fly over the pond this morning.
Was that you?
Forever in my heart,
Yuan Chun Eugene Chang, 1922-2020