I wrote this poem during Reyes the Pen, a weekend workshop led by poet Heather Bourbeau at Point Reyes Station in April 2025. The poem began as a list of sensory notes (“wind cools skin” and “see tiny daisies”). As I was writing about overhearing a warning from the park ranger, I began to think of a recent phone conversation among my husband, Tom, his mother, Dona, and me the night before she passed away and how hospice had communicated that hearing is “the last sense to go.” I’ll always remember those few moments of silence at the end of our call.•
for Dona
wind cools skin
battered barn in the distance
a friend stands in a bay tree’s hollow
shape upon shape
we hear a poem about a woman who loves bears
see tiny daisies among the miner’s lettuce
overhear the park ranger: coyote warning
branches above us sway
when we said goodbye to T’s mother
hospice reminded: sound is the last sense to go
over the phone: we love you
we love you
silence
This poem appears in Issue 33 of Alta Journal.
SUBSCRIBE
Maw Shein Win’s latest book of poetry is Percussing the Thinking Jar (Omnidawn, 2024). Her previous full-length collections include Storage Unit for the Spirit House and Invisible Gifts. She was the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, California, and is the recipient of the 2025 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.
