A Mother’s Question To Her Daughter:
Did you come in while I was sleeping?
I thought my
glass was empty
and you
filled it.
So what have
you been doing . . .
since you
weren’t here.
What I’ve
been doing—
writing a
novel you don’t understand
and wouldn’t
like,
day drinking and dreaming—
you don’t
want to know.
So, for you
I’ve been
playing an
out-of-tune piano,
and patting
truffles into shape,
tending the
chickens and chasing mice
out of the
nesting boxes.
Or was it a
rat jumped past me en route to the door?
This cloak of
guilt you’ve fitted
for me to wear like an apron
has bottomless pockets I'm working to fill.
So, don’t ask
me what I’ve been doing
because you
don’t want to know.
The poets at What's Going On Blog is calling on all poets who blog this week to explore the word Mother. In all it's incantations, when a word is more than a word.
9 comments:
Pockets to fill" and they never are. I like this poem!! Thanks.
annell livingston SomethingsIThinkAbout-annell-annell.blogspot.com
Oh that cloak of guilt! We must fling it off! I love all the activities listed - playing the out of tune piano, tending the chickens.......I so enjoyed the read.
The whole scene is so full of sadness and the friction between the two doesn't even seem unnatural. I wonder what story the mother has to tell. This is an interesting take on the prompt.
Complicated family relationships are not uncommon. None of it is easy if you have been raised in the near enough is not good enough kind of ethic.
Some things are better left unsaid! Especially when one believes the other doesn't really care. I liked this poem. Seems pretty realistic!
This is so relateable. Beautifully written. The things we can never say.
"This cloak of guilt you’ve fitted
for me to wear like an apron
has bottomless pockets I'm working to fill"... brilliant.
I, too, found this vibrant and moving:
"This cloak of guilt you’ve fitted
for me to wear like an apron
has bottomless pockets . . .
"What have you been doing" is not an innocent question but a probe--what have you been doing that you're not here with me!!grew up with that, and it continued into my 20s. Then we had a three decade estrangement. Now we're gentler with each other, finally, but that cloak is around here somewhere. Good capture in this poem.
Susan,
Thank you. I'm glad the poem resonated with you. "What have you been doing?" is no innocent question!
Rajani,
Thanks so much.
Mary,
Thank you.
Rallentanda,
Very true. Families are complicated animals. Thanks!
Sumana,
There is so much more, barely scratching the surface here. The constant desire to please but falling short. Thanks!
Sherry,
Thank you so much!
Annell,
Thanks!!
Yvonne.... I could quote each line, if I were to try to find favor with one!
Outstanding gentle, yet powerful depiction of complicated mother/daughter dynamic and yet perhaps I am hearing something, not written, but I do hear love as well. Beautifully done!
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