i am nothing like my mother

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