MInding the Mother(-in-Law)

Minding the Mother(-in-law)


Age has caught up with you, Mak,
You are eighty years young;
young as in your second childhood comes
rolling round.
Helpless, incapable of the simplest task;
like a child just learning to live
while yours is reaching its end.
You need me to hold your hands
as you totter out of the bath;
the way I held Iman and Imran's hands
as they toddled on the stony path.
You fear the dark, need me there next to you in bed.
The same way the twins are scared of robots and dinosaurs beneath their bed,
and they want all the lights on,
blinding me,
like you blind me, with the lights on.
You pick at your food,
because your appetite is gone,
The twins refused theirs
because they have to run and scream and play or see if the tv's on.


Minding you is like minding the babies, Mak,
You are both the same, but how different.