SILENT RETURN

LINE COUNT: 27

SILENT RETURN

You showed up, quietly, on the couch,
thirty years after your death,
at my new, borrowed home.
You helped raise me, off-site,
on your own time. You were the wife of
my dad's boss; my mom's
best friend; and my advocate
for a sane and normal upbringing!
You stood by me as I made my way
through my tumultuous youth,
micromanaged by my mother's
insanity and my father's inability
to fight her. It is fitting that you have
returned to visit me. quietly, amid
the borrowed tumult of my new
life, in this borrowed house. I see
you glance around, taking in the sights,
taking in the cats (that's the only point
on.which we did not agree). I look
to you for advice and consolation; you merely
shrug and beseech me to bide my time, and
support my dear Rick, who grew up in this
borrowed house--and then, you leave me,
as quietly as you appeared.