We don't always see eye-to-eye when we're too close for comfort. My own mom died over ten years ago and it seems like yesterday. Mom and I lost and found each other...over and over during my prime growing years. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I finally realized the Bible was right when it said "errors, hesitations and human failings can be repaired where there is love." I wrote poems for mom and me below:

Mom and me...One thing I know for sure, love did not come natural...

A kick here and there for my mom,

my daughters and me,

rivalry inscribed from birth to grave,

sweet kisses inevitably turning into salty tears as the day goes by,

Do as I say not as I do!

Silent wars, screaming hostility,

Who's right? Who's not?

With pods revolting and roots diving

deep for refuge,

Caffeine, alcohol and Prozac

swallowing our kingliest bliss,

Mothers and Daughters

flags of far too many dimensions

to unfurl on paper.

In a world awash with so many words,

it now seemed odd to me we spent so many years nitpicking each other crazy with do’s and don’ts,

Maybe, I continually listened because “No” was never in my vocabulary when it came to mom.

Maybe, I listened because I didn’t want to be left out of her world.

Maybe, I needed to tuck all my feelings of boredom deep into my psyche and give all my power. 

Momma, Free me from the room in my head

Where there was no light

To see the feast in your open arms

Hug me, Kiss me, Hold me,

Touch me into being.

My father/child

My mother/child

Like puppet masters,

Playing hide-n-seek among the trees

With repetitive adjusting, fiddling and fixing, 

Am I not good enough yet?