Dear Mama,

I've felt a darkness in me
Something not of your inheritance
But a teaching of this world

I know you've felt it too
You've feared it enough to think
one day I'll have my shoulders turned


Blood binds us in ways,
your love in others
These bonds are not so easily shattered

I know I've never said enough
But words serve demagogues,
To us, they do little matter


I trusted you
to put me on my two feet
I ask of your trust in me to walk

Your strength inspires more
than you have ever known
I might surprise you if I choose to run


You're always so wary
of the storm I'm weathering
But it's nothing that I can't take

I may have strayed from
the path you set me on
But I promise not to lose my way.