Visit to the Border

At the border of OK
she seems to want to look beyond
even though I want her to turn back.

I bring the things we love
and entice her with tales of now and yesterday
but I talk, not about her.

She diminishes the world
in spite of my reminders, my pictures and
my smiling airs.

I maintain courtesy
as if it were a picnic in the sun,
a visit for tea on a Summer afternoon

and my host is quiet and slowly
closes her eyes and slips
into sleep.