NOT THE ONLY MOM

I'm glad I'm not the only mom who has had this experience:


The Fight

By Una Winterman ©2002


There is a thread,

very thin but filled with light,

that runs between

you and me.

It grew coiled in my

womb with you

and unraveled,

soft as your own downy hair

when I pushed you out.



Once, during a fight,

you screamed

and would not stop.

I held on until

I could do nothing but scream myself.

I pulled out my

scissors

and severed our thread.

Unwavering, I told your father,

“I’m leaving,”

and I crashed down the

sidewalk in my socks

truly believing

I would never come back.

I was amazed

at the freedom,

illicit and thrilling.



But what I did not see

when I cut our thread

was you,

brow worked into a furrow,

hurriedly tying on a new thread.



When I looked down

and saw the thread,

my anger and vengeance melted.

Suddenly I was just a

mother on a walk,

walking back home to you.



Appeared in Literary Mama in December '05