Straw Dog Writers Guild and Florence Poets Society member Anita Gallers lives and writes in Northampton, Mass (Hampshire County). Her mother died on April 17, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 crisis in the New York City area.
Your mother has expired
like old milk
the nurse on the phone is preparing
to throw out with the trash
but I would keep
drinking if I could
even just one last sip