WINNING POEM

Here’s to the one who’s never really there
Whose love for the sick is ever so dear
You must leave before light and return at night

Your face in the kitchen a distant memory
Sink full of untouched dishes and dirty cutlery
Silence haunting lonely hours that seem like a century

I try not to let it get to me
Still oh, how it does
It comes to me in seas of misery and hate

But,

But sometimes, just sometimes,
My eyes flutter open and you’re carrying me to bed
I’m sorry I left you alone, you say, trapped in eternal replay

The whiff of antiseptic lingers in your embrace
The cotton doctor coat soft and clean, swaying lightly
My body rocking steadily, your arms sturdy and holding me tightly

The mattress jiggles as your petite body perches on the edge
Never realizing I’m listening as you tell me ’bout your day
Your sweet voice a rescuing hand in that sea of misery and hate

A click and the world behind my eyelids go dark
I love you; you silently whisper
And everything’s okay

The dark lonely hours are long forgotten
I no longer drown in misery waters
Everything is forgiven, the days passed alone dismissed

Dark memories come clean
Revealing that last light in Pandora’s box
I love you too, mother.