Poem: God Bless Mom

happy mother's day to my wonderful mom, jeanne brown. thank you for your constant love, support, and encouragement. your determination, dedication and love for God inspires me! i love you!


God Bless Mom

My mother read books to the swollen stomach that would become me
Read about what to expect when you’re expecting
About disciples, apostles, prophets, sinners and saints
Until her semi-colon burst
Sending amniotic vowels and consonants to splitting apart
The time between my sentences grew less than five minutes apart
My paragraph had arrived

Her margins stretched ten sonometers wide
So quickly that there would be no time for epidural or explanation
She must breathe, push, labor count to ten
And then count ten fingers and ten toes
Traced her fingers along the lines of
Little ears little nose little mouth little eyes

From the light of touch lamp on nightstand
She read me golden books
Sat me down in peter’s chair
Kicked me rhymes from the berenstein bears
We put our hands together and said our prayers
That God would bless teddy ruxpin
Barbie and ken
That God would bless Sydney, my one-eyed stuffed animal koala bear best friend
That God would bless daddy and grandma,
Right before mom showed me where the wild things are

She read to me until I was reading her to sleep
Words given to me by the number 5 and the letter a on sesame street
And Oh the places I would go
With Sam, green eggs and ham in tow
Searching for golden tickets in Roald Dahl’s prose
I wanted to float on giant peaches with James
Read Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Beezus until I was Amena the Brave
I never went through that stage of slipping my little girl feet into my mom’s heels to play dress up
I just wanted to read her library when I grew up
Hoping I could be one of Mufaro’s beautiful daughters
Maybe one day, turn the pages of Tar Baby
She took me to find my roots in the handshake of Alex Haley
Taught me to love the stale paper scent of the library
To treasure books, cards, and stationary

Years later she joins me at kitchen table,
Talking womanhood over the scent of earl gray tea
Taking in all the mystery, life’s and Walter Mosley’s
Trading Baldwin and Baraka
Singing Songs of Solomon
Exchanging journals, wisdom and pens
She reminds me with skillful subtlety that sometimes this is where the sidewalk ends
That many storylines come to an end only for better ones to begin
Life is a page-turner and you should write your own plot twists
Words are written to be read even if the only reader is you
Many will call themselves writers, but there’s only one Author who knows the end from the beginning
Sometimes the hardest and best thing you’ll ever do in your life is trust him
Never forget to pay close attention to your character
Remember that people are characters, they come and go but never discount them
People are characters and your story won’t happen without them

There is light in the attic, at the end of tunnels, and in her eyes
So, tonight before I shut off nightstand light
I’ll pray for God to bless mom and I’ll read myself to sleep