Sharp Elbows

Sharp elbows,
those winks, shared witticisms,
         her silly smile
always upside down,
got me to flash teeth like the old man --
         blues hued deeper by tears of joy
because she could cheer
a lonely, friendless boy.

Said no to his glove and ball,
soared in game the old man never understood;
my shoulders widened, shadowed
the stooping man.
Mother gleamed,
as a perfected visage in chiseled
Roman features formed --
fleet of foot,
         stronger than my decaying
nemesis predecessor.
Though, she could not spare
the isolated torture of belittling words
resonating a lifetime in psyche,
she would
         wink, nudge and we'd guffaw.

         Dismayed, a tired old man looked on.
When breath left her lungs,
her son eulogized a requiem.
Gaunt shadow,
guarded in hidden wing, realized
true emptiness
on the cusp of a new prodigy,
nothing like the first.
Hand on mama's belly,
I would be lifted highest in dreams
         nightly, when
a vibrant woman, robustly
         jabbed, winked, smiled proudly
that unbendable, worldly frown.