By Carol Moldaw
Don’t forget me, she pleads, just as she’s
quavering on the cusp of forgetting me.
She utters my birth time—our shared moment
of severing, my astrological starting point—
like a secret code, a charm, the combination
needed to open her built-in wall safe.
The gears grind. When she gets the time wrong
I correct her though I know I shouldn’t.
She wants her daily horoscope read aloud:
Cancer, our mutual birth sign. What she says
she did wrong doesn’t match what I think
but I let all that go, she did nothing wrong.
Look how we turned out. Aren’t we your proof?
Don’t forget me, she repeats. Nine-oh-nine.
The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process
The arts and humanities are essential to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
What was the inspiration for your creative work?
The poem I submitted was inspired by thinking about my relationship to my mother, and how her illness (dementia) has changed it.
Tell us something about the natural world that you love and don’t wish to lose.
All of it
