Tom Flynn
Excerpt from KotaPress Poetry Anthology Volume 2, 2002

Speechless

I went home to visit father
At St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena
Father kept company with others sick and ill
Those who might recover
But not father
It was his last stop before the pearly gates

Father could not speak
He could only point fingers at charts of pictures:
I have pain, bed sore, suction me, turn me
Not a word was exchanged
As he suffered in silent kindness

Jailed and dependent
Trapped by death
I bled with father
Walked into a stitch
And shut a wound behind us

His healing gaze peeled away the gauze
That curled around the ventricles of my heart
I writhed upon a red cross
Waiting for his death
Or was it my re-birth

We said our goodbyes
But money was useless
When shopping for words
When all we had were gestures and gazes
Hugs and kisses
Holding hands
Silence

We said our goodbyes
In cemeteries
Where words
Are buried
In unmarked graves under ivy
And fished for meaning
In a stream
Dammed by ice floes

Author Bio
Tom has an MA in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is currently a PhD candidate at Pacifica in the same curriculum. His poetry has appeared in a number of anthologies in the Seattle area, mostly recently in Water Colors. His first chapbook of poems, Complexions, was published by Kota Press in 2000. Tom is also an essayist and his most recent work appeared in The New Times. He is a proud father of two children and lives in the Seattle area.