The Source

    by Christian Ward

Now that grandfather’s tumors have started

collapsing the timbers of his organs, his body

has started to stink. Nurses hold their breaths

when changing his sheets, giving him food

and water. The daffodils in the vase by his

windows have turned away, shut their petals.

I ignore them when sitting down by his side

to read him the newspaper, tell him of daily

happenings. When it increases in intensity,

I smile and remember reading how the ark,

filled with putrid smells from 151 days

of travelling, beached itself on the summit

of a mountain and all known life crept out

from that foul smelling source.

© 2009 Christian Ward

* Previously published in Shine.

Christian Ward is the author of “Bone Transmissions,” Maverick Duck Press, 2009.  His work currently appears in Sage Trail, Grasslimb and Sein Und Werden and is forthcoming in Envoi and The Emerson Review.