Blank. Verse.

I always thought her hands were so elegant
(much more so than mine)
with long slender fingers
and nails that actually grew nicely
instead of breaking every fifteen seconds
and then they were skeletal and shaky
but somehow more elegant than ever

He put on his coat to leave, and she said,
Where are you going?
And he said, The gra-...uh. Where you'll be b-...
And finally he simply said, Forest Home
(and she knew what he meant,
but still it was easier not to actually say it)

and my father said, Will Dragon buy a suit?
I hope not, because I don't even have one
and I don't know what I will wear
she always picked out my ties
and right now I can't even decide whether or not to
make a pot of coffee

I wanted to take him home and
tuck him into bed and tell him it would be all right
but I couldn't
because I knew
and then
I wanted to lift her out of the bed
and carry her to the sun room
so she could look out the window
and maybe smile, just one more time

and my grandmother said, I wish I could take her place
I wish I could crawl in that bed instead

and evemtually my cell phone rang

and surely by now you will have realized
that this is all in the past tense

and that's because my mother died today>

and I have had way too much wine
so I'm posting this lousy poem
instead of a coherent post