When I was just a Child

A small thing

My mother would Yell at me

For no reason

She would Sleep

For days on end it seemed

We even had a game called Pillow

Where she would pretend we were pillows so she could

Lay down

She smiled around others, Façade

Wearing thin around us, her family, whom she Loves

Frustration arose when she could not Remember

Important things and she was Late

To pick me up from school and Gone

From my choir concerts

One time I went down to help her with laundry—how I told her my Secrets

And about things that were Uncomfortable

I told her I read that Illness

Of mothers can be passed down and Magnified in daughters

I said I was Unhappy

She told me I was Cheerful

And didn’t show the signs

Then grades Slip

Friends are Lost

The momma bear arises.

She’s worried

She wants to protect me

She is going to lash out

I ask

I receive a dose of 10mg a day to fill the

Absence