BECOMING/LOSING

I drank too much, I talked too much (and listened too little)

I danced all the time.                           

I was selfish and unaware.

Then I became a mother,

and my baby got sick                                                

and I lost my mother (my only family) all in a year.

My entrance into motherhood was maybe more angst-filled than most,

and came with the kind of growing pains that stung,                                                      that ached,                                                                                              

that built slowly,

and ebbed and flowed like labor.