The silver lining.
\nAll too clearly I recall the day
\nShe taught me to look for it –
\nMy faux mother.<\/p>\n
I’d been there for weeks it seemed.
\nWould they never take me home?<\/p>\n
“I go outside to see Mommy now.”
\nI told her.<\/p>\n
“What??”<\/p>\n
“I go see Mommy now, outside.”<\/p>\n
“Your Mommy’s not out there.
\nI’m your Mommy now.”<\/p>\n
“You can be my second Mommy,” I said.
\n“I go see Mommy now.”<\/p>\n
My mother was out there.
\nShe’d been visiting me each day
\nSince she’d died.
\nMurdered, you see, but a mother nonetheless.<\/p>\n
I was just three,
\nStanding there in the hot
\nHouston kitchen
\nOf my captors.<\/p>\n
“Honey, your Mama is dead.”
\nI didn’t know what that meant.
\n“She’s with Jesus now.”
\nI didn’t know who that was.
\n“You can never see her again.”<\/p>\n
The truth of that statement
\nHit me like an arrow.
\nI died in that moment.
\nFell to my knees
\nLost, crying,
\nRealizing I never again
\nWould be held
\nOr loved.<\/p>\n
Only fed
\nAnd clothed
\nAnd eventually sold.<\/p>\n
“Make the best of it, honey,”
\nShe demanded.
\n“Look for the silver lining.”<\/p>\n
She cautioned me to stop crying,
\nFor the faux Daddy might kill me.<\/p>\n
It took me years to find that cloud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The silver lining. All too clearly I recall the day She taught me to look for it – My faux mother. I’d been there for weeks it seemed. Would they never take me home? “I go outside to see Mommy now.” I told her. “What??”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12810,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12759\/revisions\/12810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}