She looks at me and I know in that
quickest
of
seconds
something is wrong.
"Mom?
Mom?!"
And she
crumples
against my sister.
I saw the
confusion
in my mom's eyes
and now I see the
panic
in my sister's.
My mom, limp on the ground,
isn't responding
to my repeated pleas.
"She's having a stroke!
She's having a stroke!"
Panic makes my sister's voice
frantic.
We've been here before.
All around people are crowding
waytooclose,
but the shouts for EMS can't
drown out the
burst
of silence suddenly in my head.
My sister and I lock eyes,
transported
to when this happened before,
wondering...
worrying...
09.04.2015
This was written the day after my mom collapsed at a concert my sister and I took her to for her birthday. She's okay now, but we're both very worried because last time she had a couple "mini strokes" (I think they're called TIAs?), they led to a severe stroke that almost killed her (the past one alluded to in the poem). So while she's brushing it off as no big deal, it really impacted me, and this is my attempt to deal with those feelings.
