Current Issue/Words/My Mother

Lauren Mason - "My Mother"

My mother always wore her chin quietly like

The mountains -your eyes could

Never tire of looking at her face.

My mother would dabble her fingers in

Mine, swearing on mere appendages

That we'd always be all right.

My mother always, always tried to glue family

Even if they were separate blood types.

The magnificence was: she could.

My mother always helped me dress my best

Black, shiny buckle shoes, cloud-white

Tights and satin dress so Grandma's

Knees could feel warm and pretty.

My mother could sing demons to rest and

Wipe the tears of child fears to a different

Room, fingerprints tracing my face.

My mother knows more than the men on t.v. and

Teaches me to put my fists up for myself

In a society that doesn't know how.

My mother looks at me and teaches me how

To smile the lengths of continents left

Existing even if forgotten on occasion.

My mother is a force, waking the steady and

Keeping humanity to its promise of

Glory: she's my god on earth.

My mother is the essence that makes a woman

Breathtaking. She resides in the curves, eyes,

And actions of her daughters, us being the

Refection of the dazzling, herself.

My mother is my reason to live and make proud.