Sometimes you hear a voice that’s hard
to identify: soft, husky,
that of a woman who wants
you. And you hurry
joyfully towards her through all
the obstacles, which include
your bones and lungs and heart. But as
you struggle, the voice becomes that
of your mother; it’s time
to come in. And you cry, Oh no,
see how bright the day is,
the street is safe and I’m not tired;
and she, with the mystifying sound of a tear,
says it’s not and you are.
Fred Pollack is the author of The Adventure, Happiness (Story Line Press; the former reissued 2022 by Red Hen Press), A Poverty of Words (Prolific Press, 2015), Landscape with Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), and The Beautiful Losses (Better Than Starbucks Books, September 2023). Many other poems in print and online journals. www.frederickpollack.com