My Mother

you said / you would stay / here—with us / yourself

you didn’t say / you would remain / only as a dim / ethereal vapour—forevermore

you promised—warned / we would know / you — r self / who you’d become

you didn’t warn / we’d learn / what lies beneath / to live stunted—stilted

you told us / you’d chosen / this path—this rinsing wind / to leave

you didn’t tell us / we would need to choose / not to follow—merely a glance in / the mirror we wanted to decieve

you warned—promised / maternal—and drunk / that you would nourish / and stumble

you didn’t say / goodbye