sixth floor

on the phone,

a mother, exhausted,

returned to her hospital

room to find her food

incomplete.

couldn't leave 

her son's side.

all at once 

i felt the weight

of my family,

my father's debt,

my mother's doubt,

your still-silent line.

it was too much

for me to just say

i'm sorry.

so i told her i'd be there.

and twenty minutes later,

i was.

for a mother whose face

i saw only for a second,

wandering the sixth floor

in search of their intermittent
room.

i know that it's hard,
but for me, there is no choice—
can you hear the disappointment
in my voice?—  just do 
what you said you would do.