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Honeymoon

James Mulhern

She asks me to put bacitracin on her heel.
“Do you see a small cut?”
I nod and rub the ointment against the crack.
Her feet are calloused and rough.
“That feels good.” She sighs.

I see her honeymoon picture on the end table.
My mother and father could be my children.
Waving from the past, bright eyes and lips,
she resembles Elizabeth Taylor in a hat.
My parents are both dressed in fine apparel,
expectant, happy, apprehensive expressions.
“What you looking at?” She glances to the side.
“Oh, that,” she says softly. I rub Aveeno into her feet.
Tilting her head back, she closes her eyes and smiles.

The room darkens. The rain outside taps a pane.
I think of how far these feet have walked,
the tenderness at the bottom of her sole.
Kneeling, I’m thankful to ease one hurt.
Her chest rises and falls, and soon she will sleep.

Someday later, I’ll hold the photograph
and remember this night—
the rain and the darkening eve.
I will see my mother waving to me.
Maybe I will feel the cut of pain, a sigh of love, or
more likely, nothing at all.

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