What I Would Give

By Rafael Campo

What I would like to give them for a change
is not the usual prescription with

its hubris of the power to restore,

to cure; what I would like to give them, ill

from not enough of laying in the sun

not caring what the onlookers might think

while feeding some banana to their dogs—

what I would like to offer them is this,

not reassurance that their lungs sound fine,

or that the mole they’ve noticed change is not

a melanoma, but instead of fear

transfigured by some doctorly advice

I’d like to give them my astonishment

at sudden rainfall like the whole world weeping,

and how ridiculously gently it

slicked down my hair; I’d like to give them that,

the joy I felt while staring in your eyes

as you learned epidemiology

(the science of disease in populations),

the night around our bed like timelessness,

like comfort, like what I would give to them.