On Death and Living

My mother used to tell me that
although I wasn’t a fussy
baby
on difficult nights, an earache, a nightmare
it calmed me to have
the bridge
of my nose
stroked gently with the pad of her index finger
bridge to brow
bridge to brow
So
even in the sterile scented hospital haze
over the huff of the ventilator
and
well-meaning interruptions of her fellow nurses
a gift,
and I stroked the length of my mother’s nose
bridge to brow
bridge to brow

Emily Mosley grew up in a small lakeside cabin in rural Georgia but has spent the last six years in the gritty wonderland that is New Orleans. She can often be found sneaking into strangers’ yards to smell their flowers and pet their cats and is mother to three surly but hilarious daughters.