IMPACT

IMPACT

She began wearing

three pairs of panties two pairs of support

hose four slips and sometimes two or three

dresses before she died

Her eyes were empty as the deer's we noticed

dead just off the exit coming into town

She would nudge me with her thin shoulder

and I would rub the hump of her neck

The medication kept her calm unaware

of how close she was

to the end

kept her from seeing the headlights swinging

around the sudden curve

of her Alzheimer's

All she knew in the end

was the coldness of the falling of night and the

fading warmth of the asphalt