Alma Mater by Holly Shawhan

Do you also listen for her?

kayla savage photography

Two children
Separated by a thousand miles

Listening for the familiar lilt
Of her footsteps on the hardwood floors of the hallway. 

Will those steps be heavy and uncertain?
Manic?
The staccato of the paranoid?
She kisses and hugs
And turns the corner and forgets to return

She tucks us in
And we awaken to the silence of her desertion. 

Alma mater,
Why have you forgotten us?
We who search for your love
In every relationship
We who found the mirrored pain

Imbricated in each other
And still could not heal
Through recognition, through empathy.

kayla savage model

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