She insists
she was in the room witnessed
her mother kneel on the floor
stick her head in the oven
after turning on the gas
asphyxiating herself to death.
“I was only three
but remember like it was yesterday.”
Of course it didn’t happen that way.
According to the
obituary article she wasn’t
even in the kitchen or the house
when her mother took her own life.
But I don’t correct her anymore.
She’s 92 now and
for some reason needs to take
this memory to the grave with her.
Michael Estabrook has been publishing his poetry in the small press since the 1980s. He has published over 20 collections, a recent one being The Poet’s Curse, A Miscellany (The Poetry Box, 2019).