FLUENT AS EVER

Everything now is a herculean effort:

           drinking water from a paper cup

            reading what’s right in front of her

            forming the simplest sentence.

And yet…

            when I hand her the phone to hear 

            the voice of her 94 year old boyfriend 

            the words are there 

            in a repeating stream: 

            I love you, I love you, I love you.

And, when 

            I leave her hospital room

            telling her I love you, Mom, she says

            so easily, so directly, so effervescently 

            smiling, broadly, with eye closed

            I love you more!