Her breakdown

I watched my mom breakdown
On a walk, in the sun, with the dogs.

I watched 43 years of holding
our lives together
jostle in her hands and slip
to the ground.

In broken speech
between fragmented cries
the pieces jumbled
slippery with tears
of broken dreams
and broken lives
She could hold them no more
and 43 years of pieces fell.

Into the dirt of the old fire road
43 years of held together pieces.