26th January 2023

 

human composting

legal in six states so far

a winter of discontent

© Rachel Green January 2023

I'm way past the age

where our mum died, and almost

to where our dad died, too.

So why do I still read Young Adult?

and science fiction, horror,

literary classics;

when all she read was Mills and Boon

and watched her soaps on the TV.

Emmerdale and Crossroads

but never Coronation Street

because it was too close to growing up

on the back street of Newcastle.

I do jiu-jitsu and roleplaying

while she knitted and grew roses;

I wear tee shirts and jeans

to her cotton dress and housecoat

and I wonder if she still felt young

while her daughters were adults

and if she thought, as I do,

how can my kids be grown-ups?

And if she wondered, when she died,

"This isn't right; I'm far too young."

© Rachel Green January 2023