This is my aunt Erma
Fiery red hair I always
believed to be natural
A smile so genuine it
could light up an entire room
This is one photo out
of so many taken that day
My papa struggling to
get all of us to hold still
Outdated décor all
around us
Old lamps and pictures
that don’t match anything
An itchy old couch that
made sitting still even harder.
This is a time before
everything changed
This is the last time I
remember seeing Erma without her oxygen tank
The one she constantly
tried to “forget” at home
The tank that stole her
independence and made life complicated
This is little Ansley,
too naïve to realize cancer and health problems could happen to my family
A time when laughing
and being carefree was far more common than stress and crying
This is when I was
immature enough to complain nonstop about an itchy couch
But would now give
anything to be sitting on that itchy couch with Erma again
Those last two lines are so powerful--I'm sorry you've had to come to such a sad realization about what real problems are. Sounds like you all at least have each other to cry with and find comfort in, and that's got to be some consolation.
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