Home Sweet Home by Jennifer Lagier

Hospice arranges transport,

delivers the necessary equipment

because mom wants to come home.

Gentle paramedics maneuver

her gurney across threshold,

navigate narrow hallway,

settle her into the hospital bed

in the den where she will spend

the rest of her life.

 

She is able to breakfast

at the kitchen table,

shuffle two or three laps

around the living room

with her walker before

snuggling into leather recliner

with paper, blanket,

steaming hot toddy.

 

Friends and neighbors

arrive in shifts

to deliver flowers,

pay their final respects.

Soon every surface

is covered with bouquets,

chilling precursor

of inevitable funeral day.