DAFFODILS | Deb O'Rourke
Today is Wednesday.
Margaret is in the hospital. You are safe.
You had a stroke. You have trouble remembering.
Mom’s eyes would narrow as she read
the messages the nurses printed on the whiteboard in her room.
Raging, she wiped them out, time after time.
She felt just fine.
She demanded: “Who wrote these things about me?”
When I explained, her lips pursed, below her suspicious squint.
No dice.
Finally, I cleaned off the rage-smeared board, wiped it sparkling white.
I picked up one of her many bouquets, each a loving message
from those who came to see her day after day, stayed for hours and,
leaving, were forgotten by the time they reached the elevator.
With the nurses’ blue marker, I made a drawing of a daffodil,
then another...
Watching my hand draw the outlines of the floral bugles
that sang into the room, Mom quieted.
We added the date. Artists do that.
The nurses liked the drawing too.
The picture stayed.
“I know your work,” said my Mom.
“When I look at that picture, I know you’re not far away.”
Deb O’Rourke is of Canadian settler descent and living in Anishinaabe territory in Toronto, Canada. O’Rourke is a visual artist, a democratic educator and a longtime community journalist whose book on democratic education was published in 2022 by Artword Press. She has an MEd from York University, and a diploma in Fine Art. O’Rourke’s poetry has appeared in venues that include The New Quarterly, Little Blue Marble, and Ars Medica, and was commended for Coffee House Poetry’s International Troubadour Prize, 2023. Learn more about her work at milkweedpatch.com