Hand In Hand With The Yaloms

Marilyn Yalom has just died,

that’s what I’ve just read.

Sitting here, in a cafe,

people watching,

people listening;

one man’s real pain

that words can’t capture,

and can’t do it justice.

Upon reading about how she died,

at peace,

with that “icy kiss” on her cheek,

I can’t help but look around and smile,

a gratitude born of sorrow,

for everywhere there’re people,

hand in hand,

every one of them with a story to tell,

every one of them here, now;

but they’re all heading in the same direction

as Marilyn;

the same destination:

The Potential Void

that was there

(here)

before us.

And then I look across the table,

at my own wife;

she’s tapping her feet to the rhythm

of the foreign music;

the dregs of cappuccino in her cup;

and I know that,

one day,

she won’t be here,

like Marilyn,

and I’ll feel Irv’s pain.

Or I won’t be here,

and we won’t be here,

and the world will carry on, as it does,

and people will walk,

hand in hand,

like us,

like Marilyn and Irv once did.

***

Inspired by A Matter of Death and Life by Irvin D. Yalom and Marilyn Yalom.

You can buy it here.