Isn't that the way it is

NIGHT WATCH

He  wakes

just after 2 am

(Isn't that the way it is?)

and when his wife

gets up to pee,

he feels her moving,

hears the urine

in the bowl.

He is already missing her,

the absence of her

at his side

Smaller than the buttons

on his pajamas, the weight

on his chest is her light way,

her quiet being with him

over half a century,

the living in his wonder

of her with all of his questions

On returning to bed,

she coughs and he moves

into her arms, he is still

thinking about his question

of last night about orphans

prompted by the novel

carrying him through the week,

Do you feel like an orphan

Yes and no, Oh, I don't know

He asks her the time

and because she hadn't looked

when in the bathroom

she looks for him now,

Just after two, he asks one

more thing and she squeezes

his arm, No more talk

she says, he weighs

her direction altered

again by tentative re-assurance.

Jim Bodeen

20 August 2018