To the Surgeon Kevin Lin
by W. S. Merwin
Besides these words that are made of
breath and memory with features
of both and are only mine as
I address them to you
what do I owe to that steady
fire I watched burning behind your
glasses through the dire spelling-out
when we met that first day
and to the passion of the boy
from Taiwan and the sharp knowledge
it burned a way to until it
stood before the open
red cavern and between pulses
was sure how to do what came next
had it not been for that would I
have been here this morning
at home after a night's rain as
the first sunlight touches the drops
at the tips of the leaves I owe
you the sight of morning
from Present Company (Copper Canyon Press, 2007)
I chose this poem for Dr. Michael Pearl, the wonderful gynecologic oncologist who continues to travel the road with me, his patient patient.
