Ghazal - there stood my mother

I wait for the day when I know that I've understood my mother

Did she do what she had to, or just whatever she could, my mother?

Oh Mama I want to summarize you, write you large, heroic

Sketch you greater than fabulous, even more perfect than good, my mother

O mother of all contradictions, I don't want to lose the real you

Little girl from suburban small-town New Jersey made good, my mother

Did you find what you thought you'd gone looking to do, far from home in Congo?

Did the fireworks and drudgery look like you thought they would, my mother?

I blew bubbles to float you off madcap, romantic, daredevil. They popped.

And teaching and typing, proofing and wife-ing, there stood my dear mother.