Today
by Carmen H Gray
It’s Easter Sunday and April Fool’s
I came across an old birthday card
A token of a time when I was the perfect mother
In my daughter’s eyes
Before the cancer and the heavy stuff
Before the hormones and the teen angst
Now it’s all eye rolling and pfftsss
You Fool
And families are a funny thing
All those egos parading with divided perspectives
We thought we had already traded them in for prizes
From the fortune cookie wisdom
“You will make great advances in life”
But time is a funny thing, too
One shift in our clutched-tightly-guarding-it-nightly story
And suddenly we are that little child again
From 40 years ago
Finding our footing
Can I just say even if it’s all a joke
I’m so glad to have laughed and cried
And lived and sighed
With you today
Monarca Rising 