Habit

        by Alarie Tennille

    She is accustomed

    to waking in strange rooms,

    in different countries—

    to making order out of chaos.

    Auf wiedersehen, sayonara,

    zai jian.  In a lifetime

    of good-byes, she has stayed

    ready for the next hello.

    So now, waking in the nursing

    home to a strange room

    each day, she covers her

    confusion and takes charge,

    shepherding the other patients

    like children on a field trip.

    On the phone she says,

    “I’m having a good day at work,”

    and we like to believe that.

© 2008 Alarie Tennille

* Previously published in I-70 Review.

Alarie Tennille serves on the Board of Directors of The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri.  Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Poetry East, ByLine Magazine, English Journal, Coal City Review, and The Mid-America Poetry Review.