caregivers log 7.27.19

by Maureen Owen

caregivers log 7.27.19    home in Denver
            mom in Truckee    for a few days    without me

Mom calls
her caregiver didn’t show up
no one has refilled her daily pillbox
she has no pills today

At the kitchen window    I watch
a dinosaur next door hiss & stretch out its metallic neck
scooping deep into soil above a sewage drain pipe
black cords where its mane might be glisten in the torrid
afternoon sun
it sways    rears    trunk up over truck bed    dropping a maw full
of dirt
from its jaws   Rumbling  beeping  scooping  heaving  shaking grit
into the truck bed

My brother calls   in route to ER
mom’s legs swelled up   suddenly   in a couple of hours both legs
he and Jacki sitting right there talking to her
visiting Steve   my ringer was off
declaring infection doctor has put her in the hospital
on antibiotics and back on her diuretics
I have to return   my little break   broken

Some days later
Diana & Alvin pick me up at train station main street Truckee
Arriving at the cabin I find mom out of the hospital but
her legs still severely swollen
she appears aged in the short time I was away   or maybe
I’ve been away long enough that I can notice how frail and pallid
she is
I put things in order
& make coffee   cook dinner   set up pills   wash her jacket   make
prescription calls, etc.
her neediness calls for me   if I’m away more than a minute.
I take a quick shower.  Put her legs
up   prepare clothes, etc. for early church   make her bed   cream
on her back   find 49ers football
game on tv   set her alarm   $ in church envelop
every breath she takes floats
on an audible moan.
she’s glad I’m here        she’s realized        she can’t do it alone