Elise Skidmore

 I am my mother's daughter.
 It's a unique bond that comes
 from living inside someone else.
 There are things you absorb
 through osmosis as you feel
 the heartbeat of love surround you.
 I did not want to leave  
 that safe haven;
 my mother's womb
 did not want to let me go,
 but in the end it had no choice
 and I was pushed into a world
 of bright lights and noise,
 and put into the safety of loving arms  
 that would never let me go.
 
 
 She taught me everything
 through discipline and love,
 with kindness and by example.
 There was right;
 there was wrong;
 and there was forgiveness.
 She was the critic  
 I always wanted to please.
 She was my champion,
 fierce with her pride.
 She was love personified.
 
 
 I know her life had pain and sadness,
 but those were secrets she kept hidden.
 I'm sure there were dreams unfulfilled,
 and things she wished she might
 have done differently,
 but she never spoke of them.
 She denied their existence,
 running away to embrace
 the people she loved.
 
 
 I am my mother's daughter.
 She was far from perfect,
 and so am I.
 I say this, not as a bad thing,
 but as simple fact.
 For better or worse,
 I am a part of her that lives on.
 I will shout her praises to the sky
 and thank the universe for the blessing
 of being my mother's daughter.
 
 

~Elise Skidmore ©2021