Manhattan Beach
They met at LA City College,
married, then lived in Manhattan Beach.
Mother said our dad first earned 50 cents
an hour. They lost a stillborn baby,
but she said, 'mostly happy.'
When Mother was 90, divorced 40 years,
my father dead a decade, she imagined
she could live again in Manhattan Beach
in some quiet hotel where she could gaze
at the sea. Someone would bring food
& there'd be time for contemplation.
Instead she fell, then lived several years
in a small well-lit room with my sister
in Inglewood, where everyone cared for her.
Even the pit bull maneuvered gingerly
around her, as Mother padded along
with her walker. I still wonder if,
in those last months, as her heart began
to fail & her mind to wander--
Was she dreaming of the gulls & fog,
the sand & waves that once had been
just beyond her window.
Bionote
Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream and Chiron Review. For some years, she worked as a teacher and counselor and now divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins (www.hemingwayspoetryseries.blogspot.com).
No comments:
Post a Comment