Companions

illustrator: Francesca DeLuca

 

companions speed

the wheels round-deepen breathing

cleanse the side-walk

Heaven’s Gate

by Robert Morgan

In her nineties and afraid
of weather and of falling if
she wandered far outside her door,
my mother took to strolling in
the house. Around and round she’d go,
stalking into corners, backtrack,
then tum and speed down hallway, stop
almost at doorways, skirt a table,
march up to the kitchen sink and
wheel to left, then swing into
the bathroom, almost stumble on
a carpet there. She must have walked
a hundred miles or more among
her furniture and family pics,
mementos of her late husband.
Exercising heart and limb,
outwalking stroke, attack, she strode,
not restless like a lion in zoo,
but with a purpose and a gait,
and kept her eyes on heaven’s gate.

“Heaven’s Gate” by Robert Morgan from Dark Energy. © Penguin, 2015.