They are the ones who sit in stunned silence on the end of telephone lines,
the ones who pad softly up the stairs to frigid attics rooms,
who ignore your snot-tears and swollen eyes
and insist that you take their room for the night,
the ones who know to put on emergency Beyoncé
and can coax you to eat when your appetite has fled,
who console you by saying, “You’d have had ugly children,”
the ones who come running when the distance is short
and offer to drive…
