Visiting Hours

 

Today I left early.

My mother was still sleeping,

And due after that for kidney dialysis.

I love her dearly but in the final analysis,

There wasn’t very much more I could do.

Leaving the room, taking the elevator down,

And out the pneumatic doors to the avenue,

I was surprised to feel a great lifting of the heart,

As though released from some great intensity.

And turned uptown, to a bar I knew,

With chrome and ebony tables where they served

The true Scottish ale.