COMPLIANCE
(for Grandma Lillie)
White and wispy as spun sugar, her hair
Is still damp from the rollers, our arrival
Taking her by surprise. She sits on her porch
In the only aluminum chair left, her doll
Legs dangling. Gravity has collapsed her
One inch for each calcium-starved disc.
Now she says she has no neck and cannot
Wear the gemstone pendants we have given her.
She hadn’t thought it would come to this, her porch
Bare of furniture and philodendron,
Her plants twisting heart-shaped leaves for the neighbors.
Her sister says the nursing home is pleasant.
She doesn’t know what to expect. She’ll take an African
Violet with her and a rocking chair.
She’ll try to bloom where she is planted. Her voice
Is thin as the top note on a harpsichord.
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