Tonight's Poet Corner: Dependence

Dependence
by Belinda Roddie

It starts when you cry over a
spilled bowl of macaroni and cheese,
and only a mother's hug can stop
the tears. It ends

with your hands shaking
over your sleeping wife's body,
because she's turned on her side,
fetal position, and won't let you touch her
because she's too warm. And the cold

is starting to settle in your bones
because you've required hot splints
to hold them up this whole time,
and now that the ice is thickening
in your veins, you feel fragile,

and no amount of mother's embraces
will save you from your knees giving out.