Gert's Baby

She fell  into her illness

A flake descending into white

Her mother telling Betty

She couldn't leave the house to play

But she could come up

Kathy was all alone, fretting.

Going to the hospital, returning

Weaker than before and soon

Could not leave. The ache

Wafting from that upstairs flat

Across the alley to our house until

That pale little thing became

Part of so much snow covering.