Phone Visit with Jenny
Approximately 5 percent of people aged 65 to 74 years and 40 percent of people older than 85 have some form of dementia, according to the Merck Manual.
My sister Jenny calls from the facility
where she’s been living for four years
& I move to our living room couch
to get comfortable.
It becomes a three-way conversation
when my older sister joins in
& I ask Jenny how she’s doing.
She says she’s OK
but she’s too warm—
Why is it so hot in here?
We remind her that it’s
January & very cold outside
In Albuquerque.
But she’s still too hot
& there are no lights
on the Christmas tree downstairs.
Maybe they unplugged them
my older sister says
now that the holiday passed.
Jenny says they taped off
the living room by the tree
so you can’t sit there
on that soft blue couch.
We say it’s probably due to
the need for social distance
but she’s adamant—still too warm down there
& she can’t find her son.
He was just here & left she says
he’s at the airport now
maybe it’s due to the virus we say
maybe he had to go back home.
My older sister & I know
he passed ten years ago
& they had been living together.
She pauses . . . wants us to know
that all is well with him
& reveals more of her expansive truth
that percolates often amid a crush of anxiety.
I know it doesn’t seem real
she tells us—
But He Was Here
I don’t know where he is now.
Her words envelope our hearts
& we pause for a few moments.
My older sister asks if she was able to sign
the Christmas cards with stamps ready
to be mailed out last week.
I don’t know where they are—
Why is it so hot in here?
*
José Chávez dedicates his life to writing. He’s had poetry published in the Multilingual Educator Journal, Acentos Review, and the Inlandia Anthology. José is the author of two bilingual poetry books for children: Little Stars and Cactus and Dancing Fruit, Singing Rivers.
