momma's shadow...

 

She used all of her blessings just getting to work
and at day's end, she ran a huge deficit
getting back home again; somehow it was worth it to her,
to see her children and care for their needs.

Seeing their faces and a wet kiss were moments
that crowned her days in the kind of glory
for which she gave constant praise;
used all of her blessings and borrowed some
from the Angels in her life.

Such hardships were the tests
she eagerly embraced, for the taste
of her son's chocolate skin, the boyish grin
that presaged a dream for a handsome,
accomplished man. She turned her life
into a place to stand, no regard
to the soft sands beneath her feet
She poured the waters of her life bent  til her back was bowed
raising the ground to meet his steps, a steep climb
from the bottom of America...

She used all of her blessings
on the Paramus Bus, and the Hoboken transfer
and the snowy curves on Ratcliffe Road
in January, when her hungry kids waited long past dark
for the most welcome darkness,  Momma's shadow
over the dining table, where math became algebra
and classics became book reports, and the
life of learning took fuel from the sun of her heart

She used all of her blessings, the dividends of her faith
invested in the lives she loved more than her own,


and when my world revolved around her,
she was the only blessing... that I needed.