Mother, child

Cave-like sunken brows hide perpetually water leaking eyes

wrinkled skin sagging and swinging as she turns her head

my mother looks and doesn't know where she is

The metal spoon glints meanly in my steady hand

the same hand supspended before lips clenched shut

I'm disconcerted by this return to forgotten childhood

She shakes her head snarling like a child but I persist

"Mom you have to eat or you're going to starve"

but she just sits glaring intensly with glittering eyes

As if to say I fed you "from my fecking sagging teets"

"Please mom I'm begging you to just take a bite, one bite"

I entreat her with a velvet softness I've known to work

Those lips open and gratefully I slot the spoonful in

"See that wasn't so hard, and now look you're finished"

but as I say it she releases it all back at me 

I wipe blobs of food mixed with spittle from my face

and in anger yell "Damn you mom, why can't you just eat your food"

In her eyes I see the laughter as her lips draw upwards

And there in her smile, buried somewhere beneath I swear I glimpse a child

throwing food back at mother after numerous attempts

the car, the boat, the airplane and the train, even the helicopter

Leaning forward I draw her head close to mine until our foreheads touch

Then moving my seat closer I cradle her withered form against my body

Here chests heaves and she sobs my poor helpless child