Bedside Manners

Sometimes in the fever of my dreams
Mom is alive but dying…

Here she is, going again… an alternate version
conjured in my vulnerable, variable mind
DAD has come to pay his respects to his wife
who is laid up, Frida Kahlo style
Four-postered with guests

He enters to their collective gasp
because he’s brought his girlfriend along
(now I know it’s a dream because he
is asking permission)
She is a short one, tanned midsummer dark, brown hair
Big smile. Would be likeable
if not for the timing and her smarmy date (Dad,
who holds her hand while his
other paw is on her shoulder
like a pull on a bra strap)

Mama smiles, honest to God
She seems happy
Then Dad’s date begins to shrink
Below his shoulder, almost to his elbow, then
shorter still as Mom watches fondly/strangely

Same straight hair, same dark coloring, same
as me
Same brown eyes, same smile, same
as me
And then it hits me, I understand Mom’s smile
She wasn’t happy
She was relieved

Sometimes the best way to
get a bad man out of your bedroom

is to send him across the hall

© 2015 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil

Open Link Night, the Tuesday Platform at Imaginary Garden With Real Toads! Love me some gardening, especially on such a beeeeeautiful day here in Wisconsin. Peace, Amy

#abuse #WithRealToads #poetry #freeverse #daughters #night #openlink #death&dying


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