adolf and eva

the photo posted,
these two old people,
the warden
and his prisoner.
one being your mother,
the other
the man
she married forty
years ago to feed
her children,
to keep from drowning.
in their late eighties they
are both ill, both weary,
wind beaten
and out of breath.
there was never any love
between them,
but they made it work
somehow with
silent obedience,
sleeping in separate
rooms, money and food
parceled out.
never a vacation, never
a movie
or a meal
spent outside the home.
nary a kind word spoken.
the water was never hot,
the lights never
bright,
the rooms all cold
and full of small grey
mice.