Jess @ 1am

More vulnerable at night
She questions life’s
Beginnings and endings
And confesses her fears
“I’m afraid of dying”, she says
I tell her “I am, too”
She wants to know what it will be like
And I focus on deaths’ humor
Because I’m so much closer to finality than she
And so much more aware of its never-ending power
She makes me promise I’ll never leave her
And I remember demanding the same from
My Mother
Just before she died at 58
I tell her I will always be here for her
Does she know I would find a way?
If I should die tomorrow
The loss would be insurmountable
But only for me

She is still so naïve
I envy her innocence
As she sometimes envies my
So called wisdom
I wish I were so wise, if only for one fleeting
Moment in her life

I’ll wait to tell her
I know so very little (about life or death)
Until she sees me through that
Special light
That only shines on
Mothers
When daughters
Finally sleep