McNair to Hall: September 28, 1980

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Dear Don,

Will you let me know sometime what you think
of the enclosed?

Thanks –

Love,
Wes

WAVING GOODBYE

Waving goodbye is the name
given to air
we shape with others,

husband and wife
gently touching
the distance

growing between them,
which is not air
exactly, not emptiness,

but what together
they are making, the almost
invisible thing

the father makes
with his son, stroking the air
as if it might break,

what all the sisters
and brothers, waving together,
letting go,

are bringing to life,
not emptiness, not the shape
of our sadness,

but rounder, and light
enough to lift up
as we turn,

rising above
the terminal, above
the heavy streets,

invisible
but for the loving
trace of hands.