Mom's Exit Poem by Percy Dovetonsils

Unlike the famous poet who,
despite her poor sense of direction,
made all the right moves
to reach her dying father in time,
I only got as far
as O'Hare
before making the fatal phone call
to Florida.
'Your mother died an hour ago.'
I wondered how sentient she was.
'Not very, '
the hospice aids assured me,
'she really was out of it, '
though the head nurse did admit
Mom seemed to smile
when she told her
I was flying
and would be there soon.
The previous time
Mom was dying,
3 months before,
my arrival was enough
to bring her all the way back
from imminent death.
All the smart money
in the memory care unit
was betting she would die that week
and she looked all but dead
when I got there,
but damned if she wasn't
sitting up and grinning
the next day,
and that's how she won
3 more months.
Not that she wanted
a fresh lease on life.
She had told me, years before,
when she still had all her marbles,
that she preferred 'eating vegetables
to being one.'
So if I had gotten there
in time and revived her again
with my presence
I wouldn't have been doing her
any favors.