For Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Poetry  Challenge, a Haibun/Tanka infused with the words Heat and Confuse (and iterations thereof).

Tea with Mom

She takes her tea at 3:15 pm each day, steeped in a hand-painted porcelain pot, with two cubes of sugar and a splash of cream in her favorite tea cup. Rosemarie always joins her. They sit side by side in chairs positioned just so, at the window facing the pond, and sip away the hour chatting about this and that. I watch them from across the room with a ready smile and a nod hoping for a glimmer of recognition when she turns her gaze toward me. Most days she glances my way, a bit befuddled, settling into a wary tip of her head as she redirects her attention to the tea in her cup and the ducks aflutter in the pond. Most days I am grateful to be in the presence of this woman who raised me from a babe even though she doesn’t remember. I have memories aplenty for us both and savor them as I watch her fade into the hazy streams of afternoon sunlight…mom and her new best friend, nurse Rosemarie.

if I could, I would
sit beside you in the dark
and hold your frail hand
basking in warm memories
of us, as fog settles ’round

~kat