Only now,
\nthat I’ve taken over your maternal duties
\nmeeting your cats’ diurnal needs,
\ndo I see how much that had been exacting
\nfrom your shrinking powers and days.
\nWhat was left was devoted
\nto not showing how your own daily needs
\nwere mercilessly growing, unmet. <\/p>\n
Nurture — less material than mental, moral —
\nwas in your nature to give.
\nNot to every mortal, just a select subset:
\nyour progeny,
\nyour progeny’s progeny,
\nyour proteges, your pupils,
\nyour paramours,
\nyour pets.
\nI was in this elite corps from my very beginning
\ntill nearly your end. <\/p>\n
My last fall from grace would perhaps have counted less,
\nbecause you had given me enough to sustain countless lifetimes
\n— but not the loss of yours.
\nThat exceeded even your boundless powers.
\nAnd your sense — for once, so far from fact —
\nof having lost me: No number of lifetimes
\ncould ever atone for having let you leave me
\nwith that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Only now, that I’ve taken over your maternal duties meeting your cats’ diurnal needs, do I see how much that had been exacting from your shrinking powers and days. What was left was devoted to not showing how your own daily needs were mercilessly growing, unmet. Nurture — less material than mental, moral — was … <\/p>\n