THE GIFT
The week after the trout season opened
I was casting for newly stocked trout
in the Ramapo River when I was approached
by an elderly gent with his young grandson.
He offered me a bundle of hip-waders—
explaining that he was looking for a fisherman
who could use them since he was no longer
able to stand on his feet due to Parkinson’s.
As I politely thanked him, I noticed a Wall St
Journal sticking out of his pocket.
How could I account for this synchronicity?
This must be what Buddhism believes
when it says everything is interconnected.
It was the day of my deceased brother’s
birthday—he read the Wall St Journal,
and he had my father’s hip-waders on the day
he suffered a Widow-Maker’s heart attack.