Mom leaves for three days
dressed in black;
when she comes back
I stack blocks at her feet,
trying to build a perfect farm,
stalls for horses, a towering barn
which topples, as she
drinks glass after glass
of something with ice,
her eyes a light
I can’t switch on.
Too young for a funeral, I know
I’ve lost part of my mom.

Laura Foley is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, WTF and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. A palliative care volunteer in hospitals, with an M.A. and a M. Phil. in English Lit. from Columbia University, she lives with her partner, and three big dogs among the hills of Vermont.