Walking on Glass

by Alma Fullerton

  I remember

  her dimpled smile,

  her blue eyes,

  her gentle touch.

  I remember

  my mother,

  the way she was.

  COVERING MOM’S ROSES

  Frost paints

  the dining room window.

  Outside

  Mom’s rosebushes

  shiver as the wind

  beats on their

  bare branches.

  I search through the

  dark basement

  to gather ragged

  potato sacks.

  I wrap them

  around my mother’s

  precious plants.

  Thorns pierce my hand

  and blood drips down

  the stem of the frozen bush

  like the tears

  on my face.

  THIS IS NOT A LIFE

  It’s early,

  but I go visit Mom

  anyhow.

  She lies on the bed.

  Her hair plastered

  to the sides of her head.

  Machines drip liquid

  into her veins,

  feeding her.

  The roses in her vase

  are rotting and

  she’s

  rotting

  with

  them.

  THIS HAS TO BE RIGHT

  If the doctors say

  she’s not going to come back,

  then shutting off the machines

  wouldn’t be killing her—

  it’ll just finish

  what she has already

  done.

  MOM’S BIRTHDAY

  The doctors take

  Dad into another room,

  leaving me alone

  with the shell

  of my mother.

  I brush the hair from her face

  and rest my hand

  on her forehead.

  I sit,

  listening to the machines

  as their parts move,

  and I’m no longer afraid.

  I bend

  and kiss my mother’s cheek.

  “I will always love you, Mom.”

  I reach over

  and shut

  off

  the machine.

  When I open the door

  to leave,

  I notice,

  I finally fit

  into the shoes

  my mother gave me.

  Acknowledgments

  With special thanks to

  Kim Marcus, Jennifer Jessup,

  Mark McVeigh, Melanie Donovan,

  Susan Ambert, and Leona Trainer

  for helping me make this book happen.

  About the Author

  Alma Fullerton was born in Ottawa and grew up in a large military family. She’s lived all over Canada and in Europe and now resides in Ontario with her husband and two daughters. You can visit Alma Fullerton and read her blog at www.almafullerton.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Credits

  Jacket art © 2007 by Marc Tauss

  Jacket design by Amy Ryan

  Copyright

  WALKING ON GLASS. Copyright © 2007 by Alma Fullerton. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub © Edition DECEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061972614

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