The (a-long-time-ago) Mother

and, even though she didn't realize it,

she asked us all to put our lives on hold

--our hopes and our dreams…discov'ring ourselves--

and, I suspect she'd hoped we'd all be there

(just where she'd left us)

when she reconciled whatever demons

tormented her in the quiet spaces.

I suspect she went to bed each night with

hopes of waking up happy and transformed,

but time carried on disappointingly--

she waits to be saved (long suffering fate)

from the specters of the ghost towns she'd built

for herself, and, incident’ly, for us,--

and we couldn't wait for her happiness

to arrive (though we did our best to try).

 Our soft-toed half-steps grew more bold with age

 And, cruelly, toward our destinies we stomped,

 some of us a bit harder than others--

 and the days grew shorter, and the nights, too--

 as we each settled down with a vengeance

 wondering if she, that woman who was

 once our mother, would ever find her way

 (back into our lives).