“What She Understands” is my poem

just published (August 1, 2026) in the South Florida Poetry Journal (SoFloPoJo). The journal also includes an audio file of me reading the poem.

This is one I wrote after visiting Mom in April. My brother Scott and I took her out of her assisted living for a daylong field trip to a nature preserve and to a park along Tampa Bay.

Mom is 101 years old. She has been losing her ability to remember and to speak. My brother and I were talking about “what she understands”. We agree that below the surface, there are things we don’t understand.