“The Day Has Come When My Mother,” by Cathy Song, appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of MQR.
The day has come when my mother
no longer knows me.
It comes on a day of dying
paperwhites, crumpled
like words torn from a typewriter.
Weightless, they scatter, generous
as sighs, across the table, the patio,
where the attendant wheels her,
leaning into the dead
weight of her,
through so many
blossoms it actually
looks like snow.
Image:Â Lewin-Funke, Arthur. “Mother.” 20th century. Marble sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
