Withdrawal (For My Mother) Poem by Margaret Kollmer

I don't know why you worry
you said vaguely
the day I told you
they were on strike again.

And I chattered on
furiously
spuriously
consciously choosing to ignore
your shrouded eyes
as they smiled at me briefly
then slid away
into some fragmented past.

And a chill wind
caught my soundless voice
as I watched
your trembling hands reach out
and systematically begin
to detach one ribbon
after another.
Like umbilical cords?