She Refused Her Medicine

"While they watch snow fall.

While they watch snow melt." - Lauren Tess

She died a long time ago.

She died when she refused her medicine.

While her body and mind brought upon an unending winter.

While she never moved.

While she never got up.

While she stopped talking.

While she stopped trying.

While her winter consumed everything and everyone.

Though according to my mother,

She never tried at all.

Even when She could walk,

could talk, could be there for

Her.

When the winter came to pass.

When she came to pass.

When the snow stuck to the ground in New York.

When her body no longer stuck to the operating table in Rio De Janeiro.

When Christmas passed with the anxiety of,

When she might pass.

When it happened a month later.

When she never told anyone,

When her stomach was bloated and full of cancer.

When she rotted like the snow in New York, detestably slow,

When she died before my mother's birthday.

When she could no longer walk,

could no longer talk, could no longer be there for

My Mother.

When it finally snowed in Rio.

She died a long time ago.

She died when she refused her medicine.

She died, not in the winter,

But through many winters before that.

She died.

And so did the winter and the snow.