Leslie Lindsay
The woman I see after my mother dies says my mother is
looking at the world from a new perspective.
Upside-down.
What does this mean? I ask.
Is her soul okay?
She sees things anew.
The woman—not quite a medium, not quite a therapist,
A spirit guide
Says, who died before her?
My grandmother.
They are together.
She closes her eyes, invites me to
Do the same.
The air smells sweet, fresh.
Untainted.
Like dew on grass
Crisp waterways, circuitous.
Watch, she tells me.
My mother’s laughter is light and sprightly.
It echoes through the sun-drenched silence.
I see her, slow-motion running.
Gauzy dress trailing behind.
Arms outstretched, an exuberant smile, face golden.
She careens toward me.
For a moment, I am stunned.
Mom?
And then she disappears into a cloud of chaos.
Poof.
***
Leslie Lindsay is a mother, wife, and writer living in Chicagoland. Leslie is the award-winning author of Speaking of Apraxia (Woodbine House, 2012). Her work has been published in The Awakenings Review, Pithead Chapel, Common Ground Review, the Ruminate blog, Cleaver Magazine (both craft and CNF), The Nervous Breakdown, Manifest-Station, The Mighty, and forthcoming in Brave Voices Literary Magazine. Leslie is at work on a memoir about her mentally ill interior decorator mother and eventual suicide. She reviews books widely and interviews authors weekly, www.leslielindsay.com. Leslie is a former child/adolescent psychiatric R.N. at the Mayo Clinic.