to eye the stack of luggage by the door
and murmured sternly 'did you make your bed?'
(a question she had always asked before).
I felt her ribs expand against my side,
corseted 'neath her women's choir dress
and felt the slightest impulse to deride
her age old inclination to digress.
'Of course,' I squeezed her hand and, with a sigh,
lifted my gaze to meet the opened door,
a grinning portal, a wide, unblinking eye,
an exit I had never made before.
The Sunday sun was spilling through the shutters
and lighted the dust that stirred our farewell mutters.
