ring
ring ring

     "hello?"

               pause

"i am calling to say
that you mother
has passed away,"

               pause

waiting in time

   where did it go?

stop time

go back

                 give her that hug when she dropped you off
              for your middle school dance

      hold her hand when she reached out to you
   in the car on the long drive home

      make your bed in the morning
             and wrap the bread
                              
                        sing happy birthday
           when she asked you to
                because she didn't have a mother of her own

          don't pick all the flowers
       in her garden
          but sit with her in the baby blue sea of forget-me-nots


    this phone call

          this one-time realization

                 this nightmare that won't let up

                      didn't need to be so regretful

ten years later on

i went to her little patch of forest

planted forget-me-nots

and prayed that she would

regret-me-not.