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For Eleanor

Do you think mothers are like moons?
Gently shining over the mercurial, roiling seas that are children

Do you think they balance and pace us?
Then send us away and wait for us to break upon the shores of our return

I could be wrong.
I’m not speaking from experience
My moon has been gone for years

In courageous moments, and I am not often courageous,
I would have traded places with her if I could
I know it doesn’t work that way
I also know the world could use more people with her kindness

My mother would have had a birthday today.
She probably would have been feeling like old age was setting in
But she isn’t old, I just wish she was

Sometimes I feel gentle tugs
Small pulls towards my heart
Perhaps my moon still shines

Mom and me before my baptismal fall from grace, 1975