Twenty Years with Peaches
Today, longer than a partner
Longer than living at home or one place
Longer than any job.
You were the only one
In my darkest hours giving me a hug
It was just you and me.
We lived in seven homes
You had two rivaling sisters, thankfully not at once
One loving mother for twenty years.
July is our birthday month
You turn twenty soon; I’ll be sixty next year
Both of us blue-eyed girls.
You still look like a kitten
But you’re almost ninety-seven in human years
You wake us every two hours like a baby.
Dementia and arthritis inhabit
Your svelte Peaches and cream body
You cry, even howl all the time.
Our mantra for calming you is:
Time to relax, time to rest
Peace for Peaches.
When the time has come
I want you to hop to heaven in your sleep
We wish Peace for Peaches.
Michelle Bentcliff
Laguna