And If I Could Poem by Jimmy Scanlon

She walks with the slow communion
Of a woman carrying a basket of prayers
From chair to sink
To give them the breath of water
That she does not have
Lariating her oxygen cables
Like little ducklings of undeserved penance
From that oxygen tank
That magically
With the push of a thumb
Feeds her lungs with what it or I cannot
And if I could
I would take us
To the evenings of our past
Where the polite fold of dinner napkins
unfolded into smiles on our laps
And the graceful order
Of knife and fork
were the borders
Of our world
Together
in that lovely
collection of moments
When the light of I
Became Us