my mother loves me

my mother shows me

i am meant to be loved whole

my mother loves the wild world

through my heart

 

others call on her gift

and she gifts her calling

 

what the world wants to bury in me

my mother unearths

she celebrates every cell

holds her heart for every song

her voice gathers me into this world

 

my sister mothers love me

when the world shudders

they get solid as a wall

around my girlchild self

 

my goddess mamas love me

whisper to each other

pointing towards the path

with the deepest breath on it

 

i know of so many mother ghosts

my prayers seek their palms

my tongue chants their

original names

 

i know so many dream mothers

children running through

the garden within them

eyes so familiar

 

and i know so many hurt children

whose mothers could not find

that sourced love within

that healing well

 

the lineage of miracles

promises no particular capacity

mother is a choice

a emergent commitment

 

mother means saying yes

as your children become

something that could never

return to you

and will never leave

 

even my womb

holds a mother wound

life tried to come through me

the no right behind the yes

 

on that day

and so many others

shameless and new

i called my mother

 

just yesterday

learning of a fresh grief

and grateful i still could

i called my mother

 

– for jane brown