Mother's Day

Jessica

Mom
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I have a mother. I am a mother. It's all circular.

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And on this Mother's Day, I am expertly aware of all the love most Mothers carry for all their lives, for all of their children, for every imaginable reason large and small.

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I wrote this poem for my beloved Jessica a while back, but today I gratefully offer and dedicate it to all the daughters and the Mothers of the world, all the seekers and givers and recipients of a love so deep and so true, every sacrifice is hardly noticed.

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For Jessica

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Take both eyes, both hands,

My legs and arms,

Even take the precious German clock

And every special book.

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Take my bank account,

All twenty photo albums,

My garden in August

And the miraculous April rain.

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Take it all if you can promise.

I knew in the instant this would be so.

I’m into any burning house,

Onto a frigid raft at sea,

I’m ripping the mangled steel with my bare hands.

Anything, anything for this girl.

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The edgeless corners of the truest love

And the endless reserve of cavernous protection

Surround this child who lives within and without,

This fantabulous kid with the crack up wit

And the tender expansive heart.

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Take it all, whether you are a son-of-a-bitch

Or an evolving angel,

Whether the cost is temporary or forever,

Take it all if you’ll shelter this child

Through every molecular motion and moment.

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She sits at a desk with walls

And she finds little bargains at malls.

She eats salads at Bugaboo Creek
And on Sundays she brings Sprite to her grandmother.

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She is an anchor in an unsteady world.

She is hybrid fuel to those who love her.

She is a reason to push

And the forever foremost answer

To everything that could ever matter.

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Given the chance to love like this,

The price of my sightless limbless body

And wiped clean barren possessions

Amounts to nothing more than shiny pennies

And effortless will.

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Wishes for a Happy, Grateful, Blessed Mother's Day