Learning to Care 

by ROBERT FILLMAN

I’m sorry for who I am,
he said to the medical
assistant at the front desk.
He had accidentally
killed a houseplant, unable
to follow directions as
an older gentleman but 
a greenhorn at gardening
and powerless to control
his body’s tremors. She had
instructed him to sprinkle
a pinch of powdered sugar
in cold water. This would help 
it grow. He must not have heard 
or misunderstood because 
he went on, repeating what
he’d already done wrong, how 
he heated the solution,
dumped it in four or five times
a week, and kept saying he thinks
he is overdoing it,
he is overdoing it. 
Well, your plant is dead, she said
as she slid an appointment 
card under his wilting hand.