LOSING MY MOTHER
Nana Ollerenshaw

The worst
is not her anger
bad enough
or even her confusion
sad
not pain
but her not knowing
what she used
to love.
No words
for one who lived
and sang them.
The blank face
the silence
all that once described her
gone.
And when she's somewhere else
at last responding
it's not here
with me
but in some darker place.

CP

Nana Ollerenshaw grew up in Connecticut, married an Australian, and moved to Australia in 1965. She changed from school teaching to nursing in 1988, and currently lives in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.