This one’s about love;
The way your mother loves you before you’re born
Your heartbeat alone enough to earn it
This one’s about birthday parties
and the time she realized she wasn’t perfect

This one’s about how proud she was to watch you grow
until you began to think for yourself
and learned to say no

This one’s about the seed
The time you were strong enough to hold your own when she lashed out
The first time she wished you’d never been born – out loud

This one’s about the last time you walked away
and the poetry you left behind that she didn't understand
How she chewed it up and spit it out and called your tongue a weapon

This one’s about the time that passed while you were gone
Everything you swept under the rug
and swallowed so that you could come home for Christmas

This one’s about the way she stopped looking you in the eye
and the way, one day, she stopped looking at you

The way she drove you out
and cut the cord
and wedged a blade between you and your father
because he loved you like you were the moon
and she she couldn’t stand it

This one’s about love
and the love that hurt the most