The Strange Wind That Knows Your Name

On the day she first realized she wasn't feeling well, It was as though things began to pass by faster and faster; The corridors moved by like lightning, as they wheeled her around The new white hospital for untold hours, that she could not Keep track of, and later her loved ones came- And that was when she realized How it felt just like when the wind is blowing by, And when the wind keeps picking up speed, all the time. Many different faces appeared beside her Some for only seconds, like flashes, it seemed, And often were distorted and replaced By other faces, a sea of faces; and now and then There were white or green dressed hospital people, Sometimes speaking, but it grew impossible to discern what; And all of it moving, changing, like tumbling leaves Blowing before the storm, More and more quickly the surroundings were moving Until she felt quite dizzy and breathless, And just wanted it all to stop, to slow down. But she also knew there was no stopping it Once it had begun, and as it hit full speed The world began to tilt up on its edge, so that she felt herself Beginning to slip sideways, almost as if She were beginning to fall off the world, And falling out of the only life she'd known These nearly ninety years. It was all happening so fast There wasn't really any time to feel fear, As she felt herself literally picked up By some strangely gentle wind, that softly breathed her name, Somehow caressed and counted each syllable, Seemed to know every iota of her being, Both inside and out; and it was the same, She thought- the very same, as before she was born- That same wind must have breathed her into her body, And deposited her upon the birthing bed, where she came to be Among those who would learn to love her, and at that thought She was able to relax finally, and so flew faster than light then, To where there was no space or time to be recognized, Where she floated freely in a vast, smooth nothingness, Completely at peace, and she could not even remember Who she used to be, or had thought herself to be, Before the strange wind came to claim her.