That Day I Wore Red

A baby doll A-line.
We had scotch and crackers
at the usual time, the scotch
Claire wheeled down from her stash
in Intermediate Care.
Outside the snow covered half the continent.
February was blizzarding, cooing
be my valentine.
Now she is forever on the island
under the one lobed stone with two hearts.
That’s how I found her
the day we went swimming.
Michigan bracing but clear as glass.
Finally the woman walked in the room.
Sudden smell of the body converting.
I knew it was happening.
Say something, I cried.
The woman looked startled.
We’re here, she stammered.
That’s all she had.
It was enough. That and her presence.
Mimi opened her eyes and looked beyond.
You can let go, I said. This has all been just nature.
So she did. She had waited for this woman
she birthed and raised on the plains
to fly from the coast through the hundred-year storm.
The dying choose their moment, not a second before.
It took two snowy days for my mother to come.
Mimi releasing the instant she set foot in the room.
As she believed, she is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Life’s only question.
Who will I wait for?
Who will wait for me?