Nursing Home

I remember visiting my grandmother
in a nursing home of old people

as a child my own skin
was soft
fitting just right on my bones

so it seemed to me
that those people
had shrunk inside their skin
like a favorite sweater
stretched so far
that it stuck that way

Grandma called me "Leslie"
and not knowing
I reminded her my name was "Sue"

she scared me
so I inched backwards
into the hallway

where other people
whose skin was stretched
beyond reshaping

sat in the hallway moaning
or drooling or sleeping
their heads too heavy for their necks

their lives too heavy for their weary bodies