Only my mother’s body was perfectly visible. I shook my head, hoping to wake up in my bed from this terrible nightmare. The carpet under my feet felt coarse, rough, and smooth all at the same time like I was standing on mixture of gravel and marbles. I ran upstairs trying my best to control my legs that had seemingly left my body the instant I answered the phone. I knelt on the floor near the railing of the stairs so I could watch my mother talk to the man.
Unlike most of the poems we have read/analyzed so far, this one didn’t seem to be about sex. He didn’t want to get her in bed; he wanted to keep her there, even if only to get a chance to lie next to her for a little longer. It seemed that the speaker just loved the woman so much that all he wanted to do was lie in bed with her all day. I don’t know, it just seemed cute, to me. On a more analytical note, the imagery in this poem was amazing, with phrases like: “liver-spotted page,” “a raucous bed of saliva,” and “ruddy-skinned pears,” to name a few.
She got out of her old beat up car and ran to her room, slamming every door in her path. As she laid in her bed, sobbing into her feather pillow, she wondered if this was the time for her to die. She has been dreading this day for over two years now, and finally it is here. Every day she woke up terrified that that day would be the God awful day her worst night mare came true. But she doesn’t have to wonder if that day would be it, because today is the day.
I took one last glance at the place that would only live on in my memory. Thoughts of my new “home” rushed through my head when my mom tapped me on the shoulder and said sweetly, “Come on, it’s time to get inside.” I turned around and sluggishly followed her into the interior of the ship. The moment I stepped into the ship, I felt a wave of the humidity gushed at my face, the temperature rising as I walk further in. The room was hot and sweaty. We found a triple bunk bed as we went deeper into the ship.
When I think back to the day my daughter was born, so many different emotions ran through me. One of which was anxiety, that this new person was about to come into my life and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had awakened to my wife telling me we had to go to the hospital, that she had talked to the doctor and he was afraid that she was leaking her abiotic fluid, and that the our baby daughter might be in distress. I had gotten dressed, grabbed her bags, and started out for the hospital. After we had arrived the nurses escorted us up the delivery floor and had strapped my wife into a fetal monitor to check our baby’s status.
Coincidentally, the woman across the street walked out of her house to go to work. She saw what was going on, and ran back inside to call 911. She then came back to help me calm this helpless, old lady while the ambulance came. Whether this woman remembers it or not, I could tell the look of relief on her face when someone was finally with her and comforting her. This is the moment I realized that nursing don’t get to be on the emotional side very often.
I’m not keeping track of time due to the rush of rescheduling everything. Finally I look at my watch and notice it is 7:00pm, no sight of Gwen, my client. I finally go to the ticket counter and inquire. Was told she was not on the flight, at that point I panicked. Rushed back to my car to call Gwen and see if she just missed her flight, and would be on the next one.
I didn’t want to drive fast so I slowly got to Jordan’s house. When I got there the power went out and we had no flashlights. I had to drive to the store in the storm. I arrived at super Wal-Mart and was looking around for flashlights. The store had an announcement to finish shopping because they were closing.
“Grandmother” by William McIlvanney By the time I knew my grandmother she was dead. Before that she was where I thought she stood, Spectacles, slippers, venerable head, A standard-issue twinkle in her eyes – Familiar stage-props of grandmotherhood. It took her death to teach me they were lies. My sixteen-year-old knowingness was shocked To hear her family narrate her past In quiet nostalgic chorus. As they talked Her body stiffened on the muted fast Though well washed linen coverlet of her bed.
BEEEP! The alarm goes off. My groggy mind is drawn out of an interesting dream and slowly pulled back to reality. Just a few more minutes won’t hurt as I press the snooze for the fourth time and let my mind slip back into dreamland. The covers were so warm and my body in the most comfortable position ever.