Lullabies of Elsewhere

She was always elsewhere. That’s what Mom wants carved on her stone. When did she first realize there was an Elsewhere, and that she was in it? What baby songs did she sing from wherever she was down to me in my crib? The lullabies of   Elsewhere. On birthdays she filled little flowerpots with chocolate ice cream and a real zinnia, chocolate jimmies for dirt. I tasted the cold chocolate, I opened the gifts. If  they were real, I was real. I was in the Elsewhere too.