I am Mother
I am Mother.
I am Other-Mother as well.
I am a multitude of mothers.
The mothers that came before me,
and the mothers I want to be.
I am unfinished business,
and one million things already done.
I am already a ghost,
a memory of long ago.
I am a song remembered,
the taste from a familiar dish.
I am the books piled by the bedside,
and the stories untold.
I am the one who sometimes serves ice cream for dinner,
and the one who said we don’t need that much sugar before bed.
I am Mother and Other-Mother.
My love is titanic and divine,
a blanket larger than life.
I fight fever dreams, and things that don’t exist.
I also make demons out of uncared words.
I sometimes curse.
Sometimes my step brings laughter.
Sometimes it brings fear.
I am Mother and Other-Mother too.
Sometimes I don’t know my place in the story.
I know I’m here.
But I’m also gone.
I am all that was before,
And all that I want to be.
I am a million things done,
And the things that will never be.
I am a love so infinite,
It keeps the Other-Mother away,
Even in the days she fights her best battles,
I bring Mother to tuck you to bed,
And kiss all the bad dreams away,
For the Other-Mother to fight
So Mother can stay.