Makaila, Too

Water! Mama got water!
His finger points to her cheek,
his arms, legs nest themselves
where she is bent over in the chair.
He cannot look at her long,
but he gives what he has,
a body when she is sad.

Why gurgles from her mouth,
thudding at her feet
with the sound of again.

Little sister has entangled her limbs
in the lap of a kind stranger.
She has done every task we asked,
or not, without a single glance at our faces.

I follow the rules, remind this mother
in her florid despair
we are no oracle of diagnosis.

But the fear she hoped
we would banish with our bag of toys
has become more real,
not less.

Yes, it is a shame
that this two-year-old refuses
all food from their homeland.
Sadly, this is not
her only turning away.

I leave them all:
first-born son
and now baby girl
in their own worlds
as their mother makes her way
in this new one.


(cc) Karen G. Johnston