Miraculously, stupendously, dependably,
You clung stupidly to life,
Not knowing any of us anymore
Nor even your nurses anymore,
Perhaps not even the routines anymore,
The Changing of the Sheets,
The Switching of the Channel,
The Turning-Off the Light
When the bushes became darkness
Outside your window, anymore.

I know what was last to go.
Not the changes, switches, nor turnings,
Not a mother's miracles, a mother's stupendousness.
I know now how much of our life is left
Long distance from us, in another time zone
Airports away. I know now, my mother,
How hard it must have been
For you to become undependable.
The future is not as populated
As I always assumed it would be.