I chose to understand this poem literally, although I can see other ways it can be interpreted. To me, it’s about the loss of parents who were your world and the provider of your ideas of truth. Life capsizes us and we are “cradlewrecked” and left sometimes to take care of the aged parents who are like the infants we once were.
-Donna
“Mom was an axiom…”
by Vera Pavlova
Mom was an axiom.
Dad was a theorem.
I was a sleeping beauty
in the cradle of home.
The cradle has capsized.
Now the end is the means.
Cradlewrecked beauty, keep an eye
on your mother who is an infant again.
[Listen to an audio clip of Kenneth Koch reading “The Study of Happiness.”]
The Other Day at Portrait... 
I just love that!
Donna,
I thought about this many times when caring for my Mother. Thank you so much for choosing this poem… Lilly