A true story. (Rest in peace.)
her cancer to me
The first night I bled
it was onto your absent
son's sheets. You changed
them cheerfully in the middle
of the night. I had soaked
the mattress too. So we
flipped it.
My mother was mortified and
angry at my carelessness.
I was tearful
and fearful and hormonal.
I was
grateful for you.
Years later I was tempted
to marry your absent son
like my mother wanted,
the son I didn't know.
I was tempted if
it meant I'd have you
as my mother-in-law. You said
my name like you understood.
You fought so hard
so many years beyond
doctors' dictations
with lungs falling apart,
though never tainted
by smoke, and with heart that
seemed to me too open
and gentle, to have ever been
touched by malice.
I never knew
sweet-voiced women
could die blind and bound too.
Is this why I never came to
see you? Tears for
you and yours drip through my
pillow tonight. Heaven must be a place
less tired than this.
It's not like me to canonize the dead,
and I don't know you any much more than
your son. But some people just have that
smile. Thank you for you.
Beautifully put.
Being tempted to marry someone you didn't know "if it meant I'd have you as my mother-in-law" says so much about the person and your relationship with her, and lines like "You said my name like you understood" and "Heaven must be a place less tired than this" show the touch of true poetry.