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Order this writing in the book The World Outside the cc&d Sep.-Dec. 2021 magazine issues collection book		get the 424 page Sep.-Dec. 2021 cc&d magazine 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth (So Help Me God)

Joseph J. Ridgway

Half-sitting, slumped
against her headboard—
eyes and ears closed
to the nursing home’s white noise.
The pale late afternoon sun
commenced its daily yellow fade—
leaving numerous slim slats of light,
like steel bars, securing the room.
A single rosary-draped chair,
burdened with holy cards and prayer books—
her reading glasses,
patiently waiting, upon the windowsill.
Her first-born child,
an elderly man himself,
kept silent vigil by her side—
observing the slowly darkening room.
Her eyes fluttered briefly,
before fully opening—
turning her head, she
struggled to focus on his face.

He smiled and leaned over
to gently kiss her—
when she suddenly
recognized her son.

She grabbed his arms with frightened
fierceness and uncommon strength—
stunning him
to immediate silence.

Please don’t let me die,
she fervently beseeched him—
her urgent and overwhelming fear
compelling him to satisfy her dubious desire.

So, as a benevolent son ought,
I claimed an innocent exception to the Good Book—
softening my mother’s fears, by enshrouding them
in the soothing solace of my white lies.

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