Wiser

I heard the age like a surprise in her voice for the first time.
Like a grandmother sounds when you're a child,
but as an adult it catches you off guard, and chokes you up inside
to hear that crackle in your mother's voice.

A lump sits in your own throat as you listen intently,
hanging on every word though you only listen for the voice.
The inner calmness that fades over you when you hear
a weathered stability in her shaken, crackled voice
reminds you of sanity -

Suddenly the last three years of silence seem irrational,
incomprehensible, but mostly unforgivable; yet oddly
forgiveness comes easy
because there's too little time.

by Jody Pratt