who wakes me every day at 4 a.m.
demanding breakfast.

I forgive all the bad habits you
taught her when you stopped

reading clocks, wandered lost
through calendar squares as if

in a strange city, phoned me
all hours of the day and night

wanting to go out to breakfast
called every ten minutes after

till I unplugged my phone
to steal a little sleep.

I forgive you both for the guilt
I feel when I can’t meet all

your needs. And, with difficulty,
I forgive your cat, now mine

for not being you. I’ll visit you
in Memory Care tomorrow

tell you what our mutual cat’s
been up to—though you won’t

remember, never ask. I’ll do this
for as long as we three last

our love and loyalty a sash
that holds us close but

will, when one of us drops,
pull the rest down with her.

Georgia Ressmeyer (Sheboygan), twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, has published an award-winning poetry chapbook, Today I Threw My Watch Away, and two full-length collections, Waiting to Sail and Home/Body. Her new chapbook is Leading a Life (Water’s Edge Press, 2021). Please see georgiaressmeyer.com for more information.