Everyone has days that start foggy and then become clear. One of HD Reach’s clients wrote these verses describing the clarity she gained through working with our social worker, Katherine Sherry.
Ode to Katherine
You did that thing, Katherine
That thing they try to teach
But can never reach those who
Cannot dream.
This thing you do, Katherine , is
Is the real butter on homemade bread
To go with the chicken soul soup
That cholla you knead
With every desperate call you heed
You heal with secret empathy, a
Technologic hug of sympathy to
Those who harbor genetic lesions
Some florid already with the ghastly
Petals of death, screaming terrors in the night,
Hopelessly lost. Other callers, simply bewildered
Gardeners in this field of dead and dying compost.
Like me, overgrown with worry and ignorance
You delicately, tenderly prune me gently
Into produce, grain to be milled into
Your magic matzo, unleavened
Yet sustaining until the yeast is finally
Back in the stores. Oh Katherine o, you
Emailed me like Moses carried down
Those damn heavy tablets.
You gave me compost and soil
And the ancient seeds of kindness
That is the secret herb in our fields
Of female healing.
And now, in the same way
I will pass it onto the wilted one
In my garden, I will sun her as
You brightened me
With stars and fireflies and
Motes of hope now streaming in
Real time in real life in my kitchen windows
You are the real deal, Katherine.
Not some hologram shimmering in
Bureaucratic bullshit. You turn that crap
Into sacred fertilizer that grows and feeds
An entire new universe of hopes and dreams.
Thank you,
Karolyn
