Mother

Mother
10-8-15

Coming home from work, needing coffee and a pee,
You enter with dogs soon about your ankles, they run and come to me.
“She’s here!” They say it louder, than sleeping bodies like to hear,
But I smile as I turn over; you are safe and you are near.

I can’t say I’m a talker, in fact I’m the reverse,
So much so that trying to talk with me must seem like quite a curse.
But you try, you always have, and you gloss over silent shy,
For you take my shell and hide it from me ‘till at least I’ve tried.

There were times when I reddened cheeks by actions bold but wrong,
And times I curse at siblings; for I’m stubborn and headstrong.
But you see through my skull to the heart that lies within
And through love inch out my truer self using needles and some pins.


And if we were both handcuffed, guns forcing us to choose,
I’d tell them to spare the drama; take me in place of you.