illness poems

there is retirement
and then there’s
chronic disease
a long sometimes short-
lived list of amusement
park rides
the adult rides
the hair raising
white knuckle
you must be
>this afflicted< to ride this ride rides a scurry to keep on keep positive keep active busy bees be busy bees writing–excellent stress reliever I’m told, keep it up you’re doing great come back in 6 months my 80-something recently divorced mother weepy says she’s lonely her children don’t come around she’s still hobbling from hip replacement but the cane is conspicuously absent she plodded past retirement age now has too much space to wallow and weep she has a long list the windows and screens and curtains need washed I share a lunch with her be a good daughter a busy bee riding the loop-de-loop

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Her bottom lip drags
She throws the left leg
Like a fisherman casting
Pulling the right behind
A labored cadence
She is determined
To take by herself
I walk slowly behind her
Ready to catch any misstep
Or weakness of strength
Hers is a persistence
A yearning for self-reliance
The effort drenching
Her blouse with perspiration
There is within me
A cocktail of concern
A feeling of unease
That someone so vital
Can be made so weak
She struggles to talk
Possibly the damage
To the brain
Has dammed thoughts
Familiar words
That will not come
But in their place
Pour irregular emotions
That startle me at times
I see before me
The weakness of flesh
That dampens will
Both she and I
Are reluctant to accept
This is the way
It must be