Generations

I see my mother
when I stand at the mirror
putting on my make-up

I see my mother
when my glasses sit on my
nose just like hers do

I see my mother
when I can't cry because I'm
trying too hard to be strong

I see my mother
and I wonder if she's as
strong as I always thought

I see my mother
and know that she knows
me better than I do

I see my mother
and wonder if she ever
sees herself in me

Forever and Always

Hidden away,
lonely and cold in a jewelry box
silently sits a silver bracelet
The words "forever and always"
inscribed thirty years ago
for my mother's nineteenth birthday
Torn between being a child and a wife,
She hid her childhood away
just like the bracelet
whose stones have long since
fallen out, lost forever
This token of his love
forgotten, unworn
in a drawer
beside her wedding ring

Not Her

I'm not her
That girl you remember
That girl girl you kissed in the snow
I'm not her
That girl who trusted without reason
That girl who loved without thinking
I'm not her
That girl too naive to see the truth
That girl too weak to walk away

So when you remember me
think of her
and hold her memory tight
because she won't be coming back
No matter what you see
when you look at me
I'm not her

Hangover

1-22-08

She drinks until
she doesn't feel a thing
so that for a moment
she doesn't have to pretend.
In the smoky dim
lighting, she's
just another girl.
All those things have
come and gone that she swore
she could never live through,
back when never and always
meant something.
But right now, words
mean little in the hazy
ambiguity of the dance floor,
spot lights and vodka
She drinks until she can't
remember why she's drinking
Then stumbles out into
the cold reality
of the morning after.