Happy Birthday from Mom #2
Day One of My Personal Challenge to Write a Poem Each Day in April in Honor of National Poetry Month
You did not enter the world
By a path through my body,
I did not hear your first cry
Or hold you to my breast
Your firsts were in a foreign land —
First smile, laugh, step, word,
Day of school, missing tooth,
Quinceañera party I missed.
You came to me a scared,
Runaway teen
With eyes of a doe
And fear of a rabbit.
Speaking a language I did not know,
More fluent than in the one I speak,
The one you struggled to learn,
The one you mastered.
I was there for your first day
As my daughter,
Photos with the judge,
Adoption papers in hand.
I was there for other firsts:
Diploma, boyfriend, job,
Day in college, lover,
And, sadly, broken heart.
Childbirth — first and second,
First marriage,
First move far away, then back,
First divorce.
First apartment on your own,
Two kids in tow,
First chance to make a home
Of your own.
We have laughed, loved,
Fought, annoyed,
Cried, disagreed,
And held each other.
I was not there for the
Day of your birth,
But have been with you
For fourteen celebrations.
I am the second mother,
The one who picked up
Pieces and made them whole,
The one here, now, always.
