Poetry By Susan Vespoli

Gerry Dincher CC




Dear Question,
 
my mother asks you
every time I talk to her.
91 and living in an adult
retirement community 
since my dad died two years ago,
a place where she works jigsaw
puzzles with her neighbors, dines 
in the cafe, sits on her second-floor 
patio overlooking trumpet flowers
and yellow bells and fuchsia 
bougainvillea almost sobbing
into her landline, “Is this my life?”
 
and I must admit I wonder
this myself when I enter
another clusterfuck of obstacles,
but then feel you almost patting
my head to soothe my inner 
freakout about a diagnosis, political 
calamity, my lost son, or daughter 
on the street, and sometimes you answer
me through the birds choiring 
outside my window and I breathe,
share your reply with my mom, “Yes.
Yes, this IS our life,” so lean in.

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Susan Vespoli believes in the power of poetry and art to heal. Her work has been published in Anti-Heroin Chic, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Rattle, The New Verse News, and other cool spots. Susan Vespoli - Author, Poet