My clock reads 4:01 AM.
Six hours before the Honda
arrives, bearing my father
With the difficulty of seeing his mother
Difficult not because of who she is
But because she has been for so long
And he doesn't want it to end
One could sing her praises
And ignore the faults
But she wouldn't let you
One could feel that she felt her 90th
Was such a fuss, at first
Before the waves of love
Wore down her long built defenses
But her heart has room for us all
Even down here, two generations away
She loves even the ones, like me, who arrived
Not at birth, like most, but through marriage
She loves us all, even though
none of us had a picture perfect life
and neither did she
She was in grade school when the war ended
Her kids were at the end of the boom
She's seen men on the moon
She's seen the nation change around her
She's been addicted, and cured
And known pain as an old friend
She's seen
A husband shoot himself
A son lost
And still, she refused to quit
Because we needed her
And she needed us
