The Thoughts Of An Aging Parent Poem by Lynn W. Petty

I watched her as she gazed out the window,
Trying to imagine what memory was busy in her heart.
Love hovered in her thoughts, as the lights and shadows
Of reviving recollections crossed her face.

I imagined the words she may have said:
'Conceived, you came to us upon an hidden stream
Of spiritual source, whose birth I bore with pain
That only mother's love endures.
Nurtured with the milk of our rejoicing hearts,
We fed you with the bread of our own lack,
And loved you all the more for our deprival.
We gave you all we could afford, protecting
You from ever knowing want, from ever having need.

Now, that I am left alone, confined
Behind these gates of what they call
An 'Elder-Care, ' I ask myself to what extent
Is my affront; what parental breach; what crime
Did I commit to cause such scorn that I am cast
Aside within these walls?
Has my fatigued and faded life become a burden
On the lives of those I love? Is that my wrong? '

Then, quivering with restrained grief, as though a thought
Had pierced her soul, I heard her say aloud,

'Is that my crime that I have grown old? '