Familiarity

To day faces interact, my mother, 94, is angry with me
and God, she didn’t want to live that long. A whole clan
has died; I’ve no siblings, no families other than her, but
she doesn’t care to talk about the old days, I think she
fears dead more than. I do. My dog has died at fifteen,
spoilt she was, thought a train would stop for her; she
was my daughter, and how pathetic is that? It was said
my mother laughed when told of my loss. Tears for my
dog included all my losses through the ages.


“Your mother never loved you,” whose voice is this?
“She lives in a nursing home and resent you because
her first son, the love child, was too weak to survive
in our harsh world.” 94 years she is and I’ve been
looking after her, a woman who refuses to accept my
love; treats me with contempt, comparing my failings
with my brother’s perfection. All this I’ve endured;
and I will survive her dislike too, go on and live to be
the oldest man on earth.