For the last time
With a mother’s practised care
I grasp your greenstick frame
and hoist you to your unsure feet
though you would be easy to hurt.
A time will come that will be the last
I perform this simple service
and neither one of us will know
to nod at its passing.
Chrissie Cuthbertson lives in Oxfordshire and is a lecturer/researcher in the social sciences. She is completing a creative writing diploma at University of Oxford. Well-published in her academic role, her first poem was published in South Bank Poetry.