For a Friend on the Morning of His Wife’s Surgery

For a Friend on the Morning of His Wife’s Surgery

An ash-white fog

descends upon the lake,

the tamarack hills

wiped from sight—

all I can see

is my neighbor’s dinghy

tied up

and turning in every direction.

Jason Tandon is the author of five books of poetry, including This Far North, The Actual World, Quality of Life, and Give over the Heckler and Everyone Gets Hurt, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press.

This poem was originally published in the Southern Poetry Review.