the_grey_girl
05-08-2004, 12:51 PM
I'll wake up tomorrow
and drink myself blind
for the faceless sisterhood
of those who tried and failed,
those who succeeded and lost,
and those who benefited from their losses.
For all the test sticks
thrown with horror in garbage cans,
and the ones with results celebrated
held in trembling thankful hands...
I propose a toast to both sides:
May you all find your way.
I raise my glass also for kind neighbors
who worry behind curtains over the child next door
and invite them in when they're locked out waiting
in the snow or rain in ill-fitted clothes,
without asking them too many prying questions
because they've seen enough to already know....
Thank you for the cookies, milk and kindness.
A toast to the mothers with children, and without,
to the mothers who took over when the real ones failed,
A toast to all the tiny graves that were never dug,
and to the dumpsters where the pieces were thrown away....
A separate glass for a girl I met named Lisa
who cried over her decision beside that dumpster every day
until the police would come and force her away....
And the last glassful, I'll pour clean,
pure without self-pity and bitterness,
and dedicate these last precious drops
to my own mother --
Thank you for the gift of my life.
Happy Mother's Day.
and drink myself blind
for the faceless sisterhood
of those who tried and failed,
those who succeeded and lost,
and those who benefited from their losses.
For all the test sticks
thrown with horror in garbage cans,
and the ones with results celebrated
held in trembling thankful hands...
I propose a toast to both sides:
May you all find your way.
I raise my glass also for kind neighbors
who worry behind curtains over the child next door
and invite them in when they're locked out waiting
in the snow or rain in ill-fitted clothes,
without asking them too many prying questions
because they've seen enough to already know....
Thank you for the cookies, milk and kindness.
A toast to the mothers with children, and without,
to the mothers who took over when the real ones failed,
A toast to all the tiny graves that were never dug,
and to the dumpsters where the pieces were thrown away....
A separate glass for a girl I met named Lisa
who cried over her decision beside that dumpster every day
until the police would come and force her away....
And the last glassful, I'll pour clean,
pure without self-pity and bitterness,
and dedicate these last precious drops
to my own mother --
Thank you for the gift of my life.
Happy Mother's Day.