Poetry Month 2023 Post #20: “A Year Ago Today”

April is #NationalPoetryMonth and I am posting a Poem-A-Day. I wrote today’s poem on January 24, 2023, a year from the day I drove to be with my mom the last ten days of her life.

A Year Ago Today

A year ago today I got in my car
and left for Louisville to be with
mom in her dying days. Something
propelled me there. Thank you, Spirit.

Today I sit still in the grief of losing
mom—and in the mystery of finding
her in the ether of her dying.
I feel her close.
I feel her absence.

I feel far away from my sisters—
from everyone really. It may
not be in me to come any
closer than I am.

I need to be where I am and let
this space, this place speak to
me of who I am and what
I love and where life is
now.

I am a beginner and
a seasoned warrior.
I am new,
I am older now.
I am my regrets and my wisdom.