I see her clinging to the railings
That trap her within towering walls :
Walls that now seem alien to her.
I watch her stare blankly at a road
That rushes past noisily –
A haze of moving bodies racing from
One end to another.
I know she waits,
As she did aeons ago,
For the sound of tiny feet
Racing home from school.
She waits till the shadows curl around her,
Like the creases on her face
That have curled around her heart.
Slowly she moves away.
Another day of waiting goes by.
She hums a lullaby.
Perhaps her son, somewhere, is awake.