Unraveling
So, it has come to this:
the unbuttoning, unzipping,
the pulling down—
how to navigate
what hands must do:
flush, find the faucet, soap,
how to open the mind’s box and let us in,
to assist the incipient unraveling,
foot-shuffling, pop-up agitation.
When, where, what is today?
We tell her today is her birthday.
She is eighty.
She cackles to hear our absurdity,
but still responds to kindness,
the sun’s bonhomie,
not comprehending the possibility
of nowhere— or grappling for somewhere,
when that too will disappear.
Pamela Ahlen is Special Events Coordinator for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth. She compiled and edited Osher’s Anthology of Poets and Writers: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years at Dartmouth and is the author of the chapbook Gather Every Little Thing (Finishing Line Press) and the co-author (with Anne Bower) of Getting it Down on Paper, Shaping a Friendship (Orchard Street Press).
Love her poetry!