i am nothing like my mother
Updated: Mar 14
i am nothing like my mother
the first truth i knew well
because her olive black hair was thick and silky
and smelled vanilla sweet
and softly bounced upon her shoulders
in one gentle sweep
and i always recognized it from the back
when searching for her in a crowd
and it was easy
because it was not mine
mine is cherry-tinted, spider-web fine
smells only of today’s shampoo
cuts off right above my ears
weightless and freeing and divine
“i am nothing like my mother”
i said whenever someone told me i looked like her
because it was my father’s smile on my face
and his name i bore with mine
i said i had his sense of humor
his sense of adventure
his anger
his courage
never her dullness
or her smallness
her cowardice
or her ignorance
this was all she was to me
and i was nothing like her
i am nothing like my mother
is what i knew
when she spent hours obsessing over her appearance and h