How did Mom do it? Jan. 31, 2025

after 38 years with dad

it was 38 years single

that was her last chapter

playing drums in a band

an alto-soprano in the church choir

and midshipmen eating and snoring

and welcome in her Annapolis apartment

we visited   we called but

friends passed   her last cat

died   she moved to her favorite

rocking chair facing the TV

in the end it was in a

white room full of balloons

droopy flowers and

fallen get-well cards

that her shell

of 97 years cracked

and a flood of loneliness

poured over us

officially she died of a weak heart

but I watched her drown

in her own sorrow