Cathleen Calbert, "Listening to My Mother in the Alzheimer's Wing"

These people are a little crazy.	
				Who's that singing?
I loved all my babies.	
				It's like a movie.
You are the star in my sky.	
				How's your baby?
Is that my daughter on TV?
				Is this really happening?
Don't you have a baby?		
				Are you having the same dream?
You look like you're barely eighteen.
				Maybe you could still have a baby.
I had such a young mother.
				I cried for years when she left me
on the farm with her grandmother
				who killed chickens with her bare hands.
Who's going to come and get me?
				Mine will be a very old baby.
You've been my best friend, Cathleen.
				Could you help me find my dream?

(Poetry, June 2001)