Sacrificing

Looking through old photo boxes I happen to trip upon High School memories of my Mother Resound off the walls, faded edges Finger printed memoirs sigh between the creases Of the emerald green sofa Laughing, fashionable, full of vitality Mother to me, was A friend, a mentor, a lover, to somebody else Seeing how she had a life, before this family I felt the pregnant tears start to fall Each weighing about 6 pounds or so 8 ounces, ten fingers, ten toes Perfect forms of some sort of therapeutic Amends for a mistake made years ago Taking a solitary race down my face But I never cry I get this kind of strength from my Mom How is it that I don’t even know who you are? Standing in front of the sink Washing crusty dishes and wiping off crude recollections On windows, what is really behind, Those beautiful slanted eyes I see in those photos? The All American Dreamer A photographer Capturing moments in a single shot Of insight, imagining her Tiny frame spending hours in the developing room Crimson passion running, igniting, illuminating her face Dripping, re-dipping negatives, cutting and pasting To make the world just a bit more beautiful A touch more understanding An image to make us human How could she sacrifice everything? For a bundle now grown and barely appreciating Her surrender of a perfect dream, such ambition Why did she accept being pregnant at 18 years old With a wide open road and an never ending horizon Car packed, engine on blasting her favorite Madonna song Instead she turned around and walked toward Home, with a baby in her stomach, returning her rose colored aviator glasses For reality tinted ones Sacrificing one life for another She turned around to Work a 9 to 5 job on minimum wage, She turned around to come home to Such an ungrateful child Mother, Unaccounted for, beautiful soul Stuns me with radiance, such sweet Abandon, selflessness, I want to grow up to be just like her