COMPLIANCE
(Grandma Lillie)
White and wispy as spun sugar, her hair
Is still damp from the rollers. Our arrival
Has taken her by surprise. She sits on her porch
In the only aluminum chair left, her doll
Legs dangling. Gravity has collapsed her
One inch with each calcium-starved disk.
She says she has no neck and cannot wear
The gemstone pendants we’ve given her.
She hadn’t thought it would come to this,
Her porch bare of philodendron, now
Twisting heart=shaped leaves at the neighbor’s.
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 a harpsichord note.
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