Assignment:
Write a poem (or sonnet) for someone who is alive.
This one is a little on the sentimental side, but a poem for the day and a poem for my mum (who will think it's perfect).
Poem for My Mother Before She Dies
You ask me to write you a poem now and
not wait until you die and all day I’ve
tried to put you in a poem, sonnet
to sestina, find motherhood in strict
language, but what is motherhood except
the broken bricks a daughter walks across,
not words, but a stitch sewn into the chest.
How can I give thanks immense enough?
You’re the beaded purse holding everything
I need, the neighborhood I never left.
So here’s a poem to living, to Sunnyside,
to this afternoon you visited, said
Please don’t wait until I die. I waved
as you drove away, watchful as a child.
