Can you still manage
to care for the vulnerable?
Press to your chest the newborn, sticky
from fear of dying? Feed
with a bottle the bald runt of the litter
born with a lump in its throat?
Hold your pulse to your mother’s,
withering from exhaustion, chemo,
and tremors from a recently broken heart?
Love your dog? Your inner child? Your own child?
Your neighbor?
Well, can you?
Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
Copyright February 20, 2025
Posted in Katherine's Coffeehouse
