Seasick

My mother
Reaches for my hand,
Holds it for an hour, maybe longer,
And I want to write about these moments,
But there’s always something in the way.
Right now, I’m seasick,
Snorting dramamine and sweating,
Stuck on the morning you left me alone
In your house, TV on mute,
Blinking like a noiseless siren.
I am rocking in the belly,
Dark tide betraying my mind
And there is your face in the doorway:
I didn’t know if you were coming home.
All I can think is, I’m here
And here is where I’ve always been,
Numb on a reupholstered couch
Waiting for sound.
In this version, I am seasick all the time,
Predicting motion
At the exact wrong time.