Listening to a dear friend tell us personal items
Charming as ever at ninety-eight-and-a-half
Happy to count the half years with her still with us
The way we did when our age held but a single digit.
We brought a pocket talker device with us
Hoping she would like hearing our amplified voices
As I fitted the headphones on her ears
Secretly taking my chance to caress her soft hair.
Turning on the mike brought a beautiful smile
Making my day rosy before I even sat down
To watch and hear her expressions of delight
Holding the things we brought to give her.
Fall colors in red maple and sweet gum leaves
Yellow gingko and white cedar and pine sprigs
Aromatic lavender and sedum flowers
Greenery picked from our yard this morning.
Then we heard from Rosie what it was like years ago
Like the eight months she was immobilized
After a bout with polio paralysis at seven years old
When she read the collected works of Mark Twain.
Cheerfully explaining how she became an atheist
Thanks to that reading thanks to catching polio
And how she learned to ride a bike to get around
But went right past the church on Sunday.
I can almost see her now pushing the pedals
Laughing as she goes by on her way to have fun
Heading to the river down by the dock
Free of illusions about priests and their God.
