Tamara Madison
The Labor It Takes
She pushes the boulder of her 94 years
back and forth to the bathroom, bemoans
her glacial pace, the labor it takes
to get up from a chair. I tell her You've lived
a long life, Mother, this part is just Nature's
revenge, and we laugh. She has loved life;
life has loved her back. It's this love
that keeps her pushing long past the time
that her mind decided she should go.
She wonders what awaits her in her new
dimension; surely more than this. Today,
she says she doesn't want any food,
even as she opens her mouth to the spoon.
Bio
Tamara Madison is the author of the chapbook "The Belly Remembers", and two full-length volumes of poetry, "Wild Domestic" and "Moraine", all published by Pearl Editions. Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, Your Daily Poem, A Year of Being Here, Nerve Cowboy, the Writer's Almanac, Sheila-Na-Gig and many other publications. She has recently retired from teaching English and French in Los Angeles and is happy to finally get some sleep. More about Tamara can be found at tamaramadisonpoetry.com.