Final Stamp - Thomas O’Leary

[Lawrence Robinson]

Final Stamp
 
My Father’s passport will expire in 90 days.
He will not need it anymore. 
At 98, his recent trip to St. John’s Home 
Will be the terminal for his final flight.
 
He was 89 years old when he applied for the passport.
His previous one had expired 27 years before. 
He applied for his first passport to travel to
Algeria, Tangier, Korea, Portugal, Japan and the United Kingdom. 
 
The colorful and often exotic entry and exit stamping
Of each government fill the first fifteen pages.
May of 1976 is the last stamp.  
 
The next four pages are blank, 
As are all the crisp empty pages 
Of this soon to expire last passport. 
 
We do not know where he was planning to go 
In August of 2004.
 
We often were unaware of where he was headed. 
Taking-off was his way to cope with life’s pressures. 
I doubt he ever knew the destination 
To be determined mostly by his exhaustion.
 
Travel was his drug of choice. 
 
Now stronger drugs try to calm him.  
The clock and a pace-maker monitor 
His departure time.
 
In the waiting room
We pray the passport does not expire first 
And that his flight is smooth.

	- Thomas O’Leary
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