Frayed Wiring

She hid in the closet
Terrified her son-in law
Was going to rape her.
She stayed very quiet.
 
Her reality had moved,
And now included revisiting nightmares 
First experienced in a hamlet 
Outside Vilnius.
 
Was she attacked as a child?
Possibly. Memories
Had become translucence,
Which yesterday was yesterday?
 
Decisions were being made 
But no one asked her.
They would decide her fate,
Ruth and Lou.
 
Rose knew she was not well.
She begged, saying she would eat less,
Offer more help with the meals;
Anything ... only not to be taken away.
 
Away to a place that kept old people,
To share a room with a stranger.
You didn’t return from such places.
Lou was a good man, he would not do it.
 
Jack is dead, Ruth had told her.
Jack had always smoked.
Fifty years in the apartment
Where the hall light always burned.