She holds out her frail hand; candies lie in her palm.

She offers red wine and whiskey, but you won’t open your mouth.

She offers gooey-bars & cookies, but your heartbeat

doesn’t quicken, nor does saliva’s tide rise.

Her daughter, your wife, is working nights again.

Your wife says Joe, please sit with mother these evenings, and

if you won’t drink and you won’t eat her desserts,

at least suck sweet juice from her grapes—

listen to an old mother’s requiem.

Outside the farmhouse a Great Horned Owl

hoots, and who, who are you…whose roost is this?

Eat her fruits—help her slice bananas—not the lover

as she might have wished, but as twilight purrs

watch her sweet wish disappear from her palm.

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Sher Schwartz is a published essayist, poet, musician, and retired University of Alaska Southeast-Ketchikan Assistant Professor of Humanities living on a 200-acre historic farm in Eastern Oregon. Her chapbook The Beautiful One’s Ark will be published summer 2024 by The Poetry Box. Schwartz's work can be found in Ekphrastic Light, Willawaw Journal, and The Reader. Her poetic voicings are featured at www.sherpoetry.com  donkeyholler2@gmail.com