Butterfly Mind

For Mom

With every sock
I turn
right side in
down in the basement
sorting laundry,
Vowing I’ll make the kids turn their own socks
And knowing I won’t,
I appreciate my mother.

With every attempted paperback
on the couch
on my back
on a Saturday,
Our daughter asking questions
Interrupting
til I put the book down,
With every
“What’s for dinner?”
and the grumbles
when I answer
after hours of
brainstorming menus, shopping for food, unloading groceries,
preparing home cooked meals,
I sympathize with my mother.

With every hard question –
“What happened to the squirrel after it died?”
“Why is it mostly Moms who stay home?”
I ache for my mother
perched on the edge of my white daybed,
hands clasped as she tried to answer,
“Who wrote the Bible?”
“If Adam and Eve were the first people, where did their son’s wives come from?”

With every loud sigh I expel
or cabinet I slam
Buying time to discern the right thing to do,
With every tough punishment
that leaves our kids in tears
And the guilt I feel
for making them cry –
They trust me,
They want my approval,
They want me to see them as perfect –
I understand my mother.

With every laugh at the dinner table
That builds til I can’t stop
and tears stream down my cheeks,
and my jaw and face hurt
from smiling so hard,
I am thankful for my mother
Who taught me well.
For Mom for Mother's DayI love you Mom! Happy Mother’s Day!

Andrea Badgley

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11 responses to “For Mom”

  2. Beautifully said – mothers do create a legacy don’t they? It sounds like your kids have a good one!

  5. Thank you for saying it so well. It’s hard, amazing, crushing, incredible, exhausting, enlightening. And to remember the lineage of women we come from, helps with always trying again and again…

  6. I’m catching up with your blog (you know me always behind), I loved this one, hope both you and your Mom had a wonderful Mother’s Day!