Counting Pills and Scooping Ice Cream

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Sponsored by Workhorse, Lexington Poetry Month is an easy to use platform for poets to publish and share their work in an attractive way. The community is supportive and diverse, commenting and encouraging one another throughout June. Money we raise goes to maintaining the cost of the website and publishing the yearly anthology. Our goals are to provide every poet (~150) a copy of the anthology, lower printing costs, and expand opportunities offered during Lexington Poetry Month, such as featured readings and poetry workshops.

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Counting Pills and Scooping Ice Cream

I watch as my mother sorts through the myriad of bottles
Carefully reading each label and jotting down pill counts and dates
She adjusts her Wal-Mart readers as she moves to all the secret stashes
All this for the silver-haired couple sitting next to me finishing their ice cream
I mentally take notes on how to do this and preserve dignity
One day I will be the one counting the pills and scooping the ice cream.

3 thoughts on "Counting Pills and Scooping Ice Cream"

Wendy Jett says:

June 2, 2020 at 8:55 am

This really hit home with me. My mother had Parkinson’s for many years. Pills were a way of life for a long time. It is a hard chapter in everyone’s life. Thanks for sharing.

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Tina Parker says:

June 2, 2020 at 7:41 pm

I love this Paula–it has the tension between the seemingly mundane and a very heavy reality, which is a favorite of mine in poems.

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Paula Dixon says:

June 5, 2020 at 5:56 pm

Thanks for your comments. This one meant a lot to me.

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3 thoughts on "Counting Pills and Scooping Ice Cream"

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