Going cold

 

I touch momma�s lips and they are cold.

�Sometimes people get cold like that,� she told me once when we saw someone go cold on the train.

But I never though momma would.

She�s always the one who keeps me warm, especially when I am lonely at night.

I�ve been lonely a lot since we left home and still don�t know why we had to leave, only that momma said we must.

I didn�t like it so much when we slept in the street with all our neighbors who talked around fires about all the other people who went cold.

I want to make momma warm again like she did for me.

So I rub her hands until another lady makes me stop and the men with guns come and take momma away.

Everybody is waiting here. But no one will tell me for what.

Even momma wouldn�t say.

And I�m cold and I�m scared that I might go cold like momma did, and I have nobody to rub my hands while I wait.