by Marilyn Humbert

we tangle around you
like cobwebs when dad passed 
you brush yourself off
send us back to our own lives

time passes
etching unfamiliar patterns
your capricious heart
a walking stick
helter-skelter of residential care 

we clasp your hand
sell your home
divide your treasures
each of us grieves

Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern suburbs of Sydney NSW Australia. Her tanka and haiku appear in international and Australian journals, anthologies and online. Her free-verse poems have been awarded prizes in competitions, published online and in anthologies, most recently The Blue Bib and FemAsia Magazine.