Realising Mother

[Keith]

I heard her young head
going backwards through the glass,
fragments worn like cheap beads
abstract footprints
stamped in red on blue linoleum.

I turned down the pandemonium
and looked into his slow motion face,
expecting the blue light in his pupils
but his panic was caught in traffic,
robotic arms moving on a loop
repeating motions, unable to connect.

My fixed field panned right as she
pounced into the room,
one hand on a tea towel, eyes on the child,
rebooting the robot with basic commands,
calm cascading from her palms,
pure controlled power, compressing
every open vessel in the room.

I had long studied her face in loving detail
but I had never really seen it before.