Promises made so long ago
By a different bedside
By another me, another life.
Still binding today
No matter the past
Or my needs.
Why me?
Standing alone
Battling a force unseen
But sensed
Tilting at windmills
At a force bigger than I.
Where is the other?
Closer blood than I
Why was I chosen
To represent the downtrodden
And stave off the inevitable end?
What a meager existence
No one but me visits
Hand motions and conversations
With some unseen presence
Schizophrenia or an unseen dimension
Patty cake or insanity?
And what happens later?
Her past her responsibility
Or did the illness in her head
Make her not responsible?
Karma the master
Her the puppet,
Lives to repent
Deeds in this life?

Laura R
8-24-03