Sunday, March 31, 2019

Remembering My Other Mother


I went to visit my other mother
Many years after I was grown
To listen to her stories of life

She tells me stories of civil rights
Of marching in Alabama
Of working on voter registration drives

Why is there a bullet hole in my car Marge
Gee Len, is there?
I really don't know how that got there.

Wearing a nurses uniform and a fur coat to a march
To prove she was a caring person and not poor riff raff
Back-talking a heckler and leaving him speechless

Then she says, then he told me, I shouldn't have
It was a good comeback, but you shouldn't have
Then she looks confused at not remembering

She pats her coffee table book and says
He said it, Oh, You know him,
Then she's radiant again a laughing at her story

I come to visit her again
Ah, I remember you she says
I knew you when you were a little girl

His amazing inauguration comes
And she is unaware of what it all means
And I wish my mothers knew their work mattered

Then the call comes that she has left us
We come together to celebrate her life
I wear my hair red and dress up just for her

I remember, I will always remember
The other mother who loved me
The other mother who saw the beauty in me