Time With Mom



I watched the two of them
Sitting on the couch.
Working a Jig-Saw puzzle,
Searching for the parts to a house.

Their gazes intent,
Glancing back and forth.
Mother and Daughter,
Searching for pieces
To contribute their worth.

Engrossed they were
In this special time.
The Love came through
In This time with Mom.

As the evening wore on
The confusion began.
Just like a curtain
Slowly going down.

Mom was getting tired,
Wanted to retire to bed.
Conversations started
Of the thoughts in her head.

Memories of the past
People long dead.
They were still around
That's what she said.

When all tucked in,
She was made as comfortable as could be.
Now it was our time.
My wife and me.

Tomorrow's coming
As quick as could be.
Whatever it brings
We'll surely see.

As we pass the hours
Spending Time With Mom.

About this poem

My 85 year old mother-in-law is living with my wife and myself and she has the beginning stages of dementia. She's usually okay until around three or four in the afternoon and then like a curtain slowly going down starts to lose track of her surroundings and who we are. My wife tries to keep her as active as she can and takes it all in stride. I watched the two of them working on a puzzle one day last month and this poem just came out.

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Written on April 23, 2022

Submitted by larrymize on May 08, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
47

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXAXX ABXC XXXX XDXD XDXD XEBE XEXE XC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 805
Words 174
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2

Lawerence E. Mize

Lawerence E. Mize was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a medical corpsman with the 101st Airborne Division. A month after his eighteenth birthday he began his one year tour of duty in the Republic of Vietnam. He served with the "Screaming Eagles," of the 101st Airborne Division as a combat medic with A Company of the 2/501st Airmobile Division. On completing his military obligation he returned home to Baltimore and joined the Baltimore City Police Department at the age of twenty-one. Mize went on to serve with the Baltimore City Police Department for the next twenty-nine years retiring as a Sergeant in 1999. Mize then went on to become a District Court Bailiff in 2003. He left that position in 2018 and now likes to spend his time riding his bicycle, writing poems, and traveling with his wife Sandy whom he has been married to for the last forty-eight years. They have two sons, Lawerence Jr. and Nicholas. Mize has self-published six books of poetry since 1997, to include two works about his experiences in Vietnam, "Tortured Soul and Dead Men Calling, (both published by American Literary Press, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland), both of which helped Lawerence deal with the painful memories of Vietnam; a book of poems he dedicated to his wife, Sandy, titled "Thoughts of You," (Tate Publishing & Enterprises, Mustang, Oklahoma); a book of poems about life and dying titled "Reflections," (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston, SC); a collection of poems about Mize's life growing up in Baltimore, his experiences in Vietnam, and speak to the riot and looting in Baltimore in 2015 and the aftermath with all its violence in the city since titled, "My Long Journey In Baltimore," (Dorrance Publishing Co. Pittsburgh, PA); and his latest work in 2021 titled "Baltimore...A City Besieged," in which Mize takes us on a poetic tour of Baltimore and provides us with a chilling account of what life is like for Baltimore's residents with over 300 homicides in the last six years. more…

All Lawerence E. Mize poems | Lawerence E. Mize Books

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1 Comment
  • dancerwy1_1
    This poem elicited every emotion in me. It is beautiful and created such pictures for me. To me, this is what I look for in a good poem and it stood out in this one.
    LikeReply1 year ago

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"Time With Mom" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/129467/time-with-mom>.

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