When the Door Opens - May 1, 2026

Jose of Jose and Peter is missing

weeks since we talked as he watered

the jungle around his property

when I saw Peter, he told me,

Cancer, he’s in hospice now,

a place down valley

and said he found him crying today,

miserable from being sick, hating

the facility, aching to be home

in his absence, the greenery limps,

leaves tongue-curled or fallen,

revealing a house thirsty for paint

Jose will never return, he said,

and added that when the forest

dies he will plant a desertscape

I think this is often true - one death

means more than one existence departs

when death’s door opens for a soul,

other things follow it through

while the seeds of change

are thrown back out before it closes