collected items – comb

Every morning,

one hand
braced on
the bathroom sink

she stood
strained
against the
pain in her
arthritic back

to comb
thick green
pomade through
her snow white hair

so thin that
each tooth
of the blue
comb left
a distinct divide
between the
strands.

I kept
that blue
comb

to remember
the care

she never
stopped taking.