Paying Attention

My mother asks questions 
she doesn't want answers for 

are you still writing 
what are you doing now 

having spent
a lifetime listening

I’ve learned her questions
are a prompt for me to ask

her short, sad answers 
laden with the pull

of an untethered
rope wrapped 

around my ankles
pulling me from shore 

I'm learning to stand 
back in the deep sand  

away from the 
last tide's debris

strewn in the damp
sand between us