you are of one mind.
the one that used to be
with clarity, focus and insight
and the one that forgets in seconds,
remembers the neighborhood as a place of single origin,
the family of five decades ago.
when faced with change you are angry and feral,
hostility a defense mechanism as primal as the days
before fire when survival of the fittest left the vulnerable
unprotected. oh mother, how can you say these things to me
with a viciousness I have never witnessed?
how do you refuse father the help he needs?
you say he will become an invalid (at 102)
how do we strip you of your identity when we have to make this move?