To Me

                                                    For Rachel

You’re like this sheet of paper before
I started writing on it; all your lines in line
A virginal quality, quiet, bare, unwritten
And about to change. From here on
Out will be anything but un-opinionated
At 8 you liked to point out things you found
To be dee-scusting and roll your eyes
Into exclamatory punctuation marks
You marked a place in my heart with that
9 you were less demure setting your hand
On your hip and throwing
You’re approaching woman’s
Shape of a rear into it.
A Hanna Montana
You have power in the squint
Of your eye and in your lip’s purse
     And if I had a shinny penny
     And a wishin’ well close by…
You always were a good reason
To make up a song esp. silly ones
At 10 you were the coolest sidekick
I ever had; the way it was nothing
For you to take things in stride
Bathing in our makeshift shower
You in your little cardboard box
Of a room and telling me you were going
To soon be eleventeen
I put you behind the wheel of my car and you drove
Off in to your sister land and I didn’t see you again
For years and by then the little girl
Who loved black olives loved some boy
Your little beaner you called him
And took on a second
Language. I nearly croaked over it
And when I came to
I was a frog making a fantastic leap.
Someone kissed the wrong end of me and
Instead of turning into a prince I turned
Into a princess; liked it and wouldn’t let ‘em
Turn me back but one thing about it
Girl we’ve been around some corners
You and me.

Mother now and mother again and mother
Yet again. Mother to your mother and now
Mothering a mommy of a daddy. Mother you
Know what… does the world ever end
With its curve balls and grab bags?
Very puzzling our lives. Strange but you and I
Have seen stranger. Mother of a little angel
Already in heaven God’s little harbinger
She may in the end lead us all
To salvation. So many men, women
Everything in-between desperation hot
Sex, cold sex, no sex, what’s next
Eye to eye or not we’ve seen a lot
You and I and love is all I hope I am to you
It’s all you are
To me.