Assisted Living
She smoothed the worn out roses on the apron in her lap
lamplight mellowed roughened knuckles
as she spread out her treasures
Like Silas Marner,thumbing his golden coins
Martha gently fingered every token of her life's journey
Some she even kissed,tenderly,reverently,recalling
some dear face,a memory,attached as surely as if it was
etched,permanently ,on her heart.
Martha smiled,whispered,and prayed as one by one she
placed her keepsakes back in a cedar box
until she came to the one thing she always saved til last
Her wedding veil. still crinkly and alive though yellowed with time
she took it up and put it on.Stiffly she hobbled to the mirror
In the looking glass she was nineteen and aglow with love
Arthur stood behind her,smoothing her hair.
she turned as he lifted the veil to kiss her,
Come my love,let's go down to dinner,he mummered in her hair
She took his arm and let him escort her to the dining room
The reception was a great success,or so the nurses told her
as they dressed her for bed and carefully put the mischievious
veil back in the cedar box beside her bed.
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