My sister came to stay with my mom while I went on a holiday . She lives across the country so hadn't seen all the changes and some were hard for her. She is a contemporary prairie poet who has published her poetry and is now working on a book of poetry. This is one that she wrote about the visit with my mom.
northernlights



I’d walk that path back to wakefulness



you move with purpose through your exercises counting each

aloud to ten your new femoral head smooth in your old acetabulum



each meal you ask if I want bread I don’t eat wheat you agree

no you don’t eat wheat after meals you explain Nancy

says if I want to wash I must use hot water and I must rinse the dishes



I’d always dried while I told you about my school day



I’m piecing a quilt trees on a light background not in neat rows

rather scattered overlapping saplings growing near

the base of mature trees some leaning starting to topple

I bring this fabric in October March October when I visit



this time Nancy away trusting us together March you simmered

in your rooms in Nancy’s house wanting to go home now

October photo albums over tea you re-arrange time and

I’m anguished by the cuckoo out of sync – you wait



for no bird as you push the hands I’ve thawed

blueberries and you stop reading to me the same poetry book

that you read aloud straight through yesterday you want

your blueberries plain not with yogurt you never could abide

junket or anything like it after you had typhoid as a child those same words

same inflection that I’ve always heard the fabric is spread all over

the table where you eat your fruit I’m wondering when you will leave me



blueberry prints through the light background a trail through the trees

I’m perversely hoping

I’d set that path with hot salt water

Nice poem but really intense. I have to read it a few more times to really get to the meaning of it. Nice that your sister left this poem for you. Like Joyce W., she seems to have real talent.

thanks for sharing northern.

Jackie

Hi Jackie, Yes my sister's poetry is intense. I always have to read her poetry several times before I get the full meaning too.
After I posted it I wondered if those who read it will get what she is trying to say when they don't know my mom.
She hadn't been around my mom for awhile and the poem is basically a list of the things my mom can't do anymore like dishes, winding her favorite cuckoo clock and forgetting things like my sister's allergies and quilt making.
My sister really hoped that she would get a blueberry stain on the quilt so she would always remember my mom when she sees the stain. She was working on the quilt on the dining room table where my mom was having lunch. I think she will always remember my mom when she sees that quilt on her bed.
northernlights

Oh, I'm so glad you explained this. I read the poem and didn't understand it. I felt like a real dummy.

I, too, reread your poem after you explained it and it all makes sense now. I remember all the forgotten things. It was difficult seeing these changes ever day, but when you don't see the person daily, they can hit you hard the first time you see them.

A very good poem. States it just like it was me, gathering my own thoughts while observing the changes in Old Navy during the last 6 months with him.