Christina Kallery
The Last Time
my mother left home for the hospital,
I helped her pack her small bag —
the old brown Bible with its margin scrawls
and binding's gradual unleafing like a Maple
in a Michigan November, a brush gnarled
with her fine, pale hair, a cardigan to keep
the cold at bay — I didn't cry
until I saw her shoes. The worn
and resoled pair that bore her through
a life as hard as it was true.
"Why are you crying?"
she asked but we both knew
this was a road she'd take alone
to a place I couldn't go.
Bio
Christina Kallery is the author of Adult Night At Skate World, now in its 2nd edition from Dzanc Books. Her poetry has appeared in Rattle, ONE ART, Gargoyle and other publications, and has been included in several anthologies, including Best of the Web and Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music. She currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.