mirrors
by ella turenne
mothers and daughters mirror times lived by separate lives.
she wanted to be like mama,
but there was no room for ambition and nurturing
in the same womb so they had to fight it out,
and in the end ambition won,
and the rest of her life suffered
as she lost pieces of it one by one
by one
by
one
by
one day her mother spat her out
like her father did her,
and his mother before him
setting off the chain of recognition -
oh you MUST be her child!
mama was picked from le pearles des antilles
and replanted in the big apple-
still looking for her dreams,
still dreaming,
unable to reach past the wall of white hands
that blinded her from them.
she sees them in her and
she sees them in her
and they dependant on their dependence on each other
knowing they are mirror images in a different place and time
coexisting on the axis of
a womans burdens:
leave the self behind and it will reincarnate in your fruit
somewhere in a better place.
mama labored that she may live in peace-
peace of mind,
peace of body,
but for daughter only the differences define that peace,
knowing mirror images they are
but
les pearles des antilles
the big apple
is not.
