The Turning

A day before mother dies
she calls out father’s name—
the long version, Maximilian.
It comes out like a question as if
she is asking whether or not
he will embrace her after the years
she has been alone trying
to come into her own name, Flora—
a calla lily, gracious but still mournful.
Or after all the times she screamed at him
and called him Idiot,
even in front of the neighbors,
the three syllables that would ring
through our tiny apartment,
putting us on alert: mother is depressed.
Towards the end when she watched TV
she wanted me to fix the characters’
marital problems, her way perhaps
of asking forgiveness. She would turn to me
especially during the screaming and beg:
Please, please, you have to help them.