“The problem,” she said, “the reason
you cannot sleep through the night,
is simple and easily fixed if you
only follow my advice for which,
as you know, you are paying dearly.”
This was what I had been waiting
to hear after so many therapy sessions.
I begged her to go on, thinking what
I would do with the money I
had been spending on her if
what she suggested actually worked.
“We have established that you
are still processing the discovery
of your birth mother, and that is
a heavy burden at any age, no
lighter for someone six decades on.
But you have taken this too far,
as I am sure your partner would
tell you given the chance but
afraid of how you might react.
The simple answer is stop dreaming
that you are sharing space
next to the mother you never met,
for I can assure you that ghosts
always make terrible bedfellows.”