11. My Adoptive Mother Wants To Know If I've Ever Done One Of Those DNA Ancestry Tests

I used to be better
about talking with people while they cried

Now I let them talk out their sadness
while my non-commital guttural soothes them

I saw a movie once
where someone went to a therapist and actually felt better

The therapist later killed themselves and mentioned
the protagonist in their final prescription
sending the formerly cured patient into 
the worst depression of their life

I never know who to recommend films to
so I keep my mouth shut

In real life
                        some people get better
                        most therapists survive long enough
to die by someone else's hands

When I say I don't need anyone
I don't mean I don't want anyone
Just that everyone is free to move
around this stupid playpen 
as often as they wish

My mother can laugh now
about the first dance she went to
after her husband died
when she and her four friends sat down
at a table with six chairs
and she stormed out of the room
demanding to know who was cruel enough
to leave an empty chair where her husband would have sat