shot glass
title
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Ruth Bavetta


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The Final Choice

My husband speaks rapid Norwegian
into the phone. It's Ingrid again,
calling from Oslo
to say that Tante Rakel, who's ninety-six,
Tante Rakel who got in trouble
for talking back to the Nazis,
is being railroaded into a nursing home,
because she has tried to kill herself three times.
The State, in its infinite wisdom,
wants her to die more slowly.