I am a mother and I did not make you.

for phx

You have no spiral strand of me in you

but do I feel real to you? baby boy,

I make me a mother when I wake up 

to you frightened or fevered

I make me a mother when you don’t get what you want

I make me a mother when I don’t help you

then watch you find out how 

I make me a mother when I go back to see you born into the world

when I spell safety with my hands on your small head before words, before harm. 

A poem is a movie to pretend I was there, right here, 9 years later, sweet child with busy brown eyes

I make me a mother when I brushed your acorn teeth 

I make me a mother conjuring bedtime stories out of the day’s rubble 

I make me a mother with or without your first step

I make me a mother now that my heart is no longer my own

You make me a mother when you tell me about your wanting

You make me a mother.

You make me a mother when you took my hand and said: mother

You make me a mother and you can take it away

I make me a mother; I make me stay.