Clare Crossman
The Women
Beyond the morning rush on any ordinary street,
there will be women caring for the old.
They will open curtains, make cups of tea,
lift, wash and settle; keep the kitchen exact.
Amongst the kitchen steam, they will fill the day
with conversation, inhabit slowness, hear the clock's slow tick.
From photographs and memory the women know
that this was someone like them, who loved,
met with friends, took buses in the rain.
These are the quiet rooms: sheets carefully
turned down, hairbrushes rowed, pillows
raised to support shoulders, turn faces to the sun.
Do they ever wonder who will care for them
when they sit alone behind ivy-covered walls?
Or will they simply melt back into
the mercy of the air, having understood
how age takes our future and can mark
the present with the openness of children,
and the difficulty of leaving all this:
the light, the warmth, the softness,
the deep shade cast by old trees.
Page(s) 54
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