Alone with Mother
BY CHLOE HONUM
We came out of the sea at dusk
and walked through the dune-grass.
Like runaways, we were free
of the house and its babble:
pill bottle labels, shopping lists.
The ocean banged and frothed.
In the car, we sat a long time,
the keys a silver
starfish in her lap, silence
a kind of love between us.