It can’t have been easy.
Her life had been entirely over there
from start to finish
but that was finished
and she was starting over again
over here
with nothing
and no one helping.

I forget that sometimes
when I think only of the results:
the spare gestures
the frugality of affection
the quick words
and sometimes careless ways with others.
It’s like she didn’t know our ways here
because she didn’t.
She was new to our world.

It doesn’t forgive everything.
Nothing could.
But it is good to remember.
The context makes it easier
to understand what makes her that way
which could make all our future interactions far more tolerable – where’s everyone going?