A Poem for A Mother

When you lie there at night
through the wall do you wonder
what it is you can’t discern?
why you can’t hear? or are you even listening?
so many things we can’t talk to each other about
we know we feel the same about so much
hear the same lies, tell the same unhideable truth
and yet we cannot speak of it aloud,
cannot find an answer in each other’s pains and previousness
i don’t know everything about you; I don’t need to, because
i know myself and that is enough
but how much do you realize
you passed on to me?
don’t you know that i think of you
when i’m lying there, sleep buzzing in my ears
afterward
when he’s talking to me and I am having
to force myself to hear the truth
don’t you know i look at him
and see a little of what you saw?
i’ve made the same mistakes
listed the same reasons, found the same sanity in ignoring the real until i found something that you have not
i’m more than that
and i wonder still
what you are.
Next
Previous
Homepage
Email me