She Said Goodbye
No, she said, it just wasn’t worth a try.
Her life, she said, it must come to an end.
Goddess Latona of the darkness said goodbye.
Mother enigmatic could no longer pretend.
Her children caught in advancing adulthood,
we never clearly understood her daily anguish.
She exposed parts of her hidden to us by motherhood.
How dare she bring her life to an enfeebled finish!
At 84, her joyless life racked with chronic trauma.
We sat feigning dispassionate deliberation,
Hearing her date with death, we tried displaying no drama,
a surreal sham, as our mother declared her termination.
Shocked readers must think we should have done more.
Surely, she suffered from Alzheimer’s, or some sudden dementia.
Mother lucid, clearly contented in family, but resolute to her core.
Venerating her dignity compelled our deference to her enigma.
Inviting us around her final table, she said goodbye.
Her gesture of honesty to us intended to make it easier.
As she stripped us of family grounding, I did not know how to cry.
With everything in her death choreographed, I was an awkward actor.
Some of my siblings were quite confused
but seemed willing to take it in stride.
One, in particular, went off the rails, feeling quite abused.
Indeed, the cavity left in hungry hearts could never be denied.
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