Happy Birthday, Emily!

This is mostly just a fragment. I’ve had a hard time writing lately, and at least I finally got this one out. You may have seen poems about this theme from me before. (Ahem)

I Tell My Mother

About a dream in which she dies.
There’s a cranky buzz on the
cordless phone, I bring it closer
to the base, farther away,
the buzz stays the same. I can
hear my mother licking her lips
and sipping her coffee. Go on,
she says, tell me the part about
the stairs again.