by Claudia M. Reder
She’s frightened that we think of her as inept,
but it’s not her marbles she is losing.
Each year something has happened:
a stroke, a pulled ligament, and this spring
I thought to ward it off by visiting.
She keeps asking, How long are you staying?
emphasizing the hooow and the loooong.
I learn she showers in the morning
because if she has a stroke
perhaps someone will hear her;
that Mary Solomon gets her mail each day;
that she doesn’t eat much
though she enjoyed the popsicles I bought;
that she lies in bed listening to the local radio talk station;
that she doesn’t play much music
although she used to love concerts and the Frick museum.
My mother who has been single for years,
managing children and money now rests on the narrow, green couch.
She learns to let me serve her a cup of tea,
and pick up the paper outside the door each morning.
I could get used to niceness, she says.
Claudia M. Reder is the author of How to Disappear, a poetic memoir, (Blue Light Press, 2019). Uncertain Earth (Finishing Line Press), and My Father & Miro (Bright Hill Press). How to Disappear was awarded first prize in the Pinnacle and Feathered Quill awards. She was awarded the Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize from Lilith Magazine.
Emerge Literary Journal 