Slipping Away

Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?

~M.C. Escher

Daily I watch as she gradually

slips away from me and all reality.

In her mind I have become young again.

She keeps admonishing me to come in

from the cold and have supper,

telling me that Daddy will soon

be home from work.

Daddy’s been dead for ten years

but the reality of that has never

caught up with her.

I stifle tears, put on a smile, shout “I’m coming, Mom!”

and pretend to stamp my feet from the cold,

despite the summer heat.

Again I step into her world.

~Sue Young