Extinction
I know I’ve been referencing my mother a lot this month
and I know this because people tell me about their mothers like I’ll understand the private language
they spoke; like I’ll know how to bring the feeling of her back from extinction. It’s not true and
to me every beloved mother looks like mine.
If I don’t write about my mother
if I don’t open a dialogue in my life for everything I feel about her
I will never have a life outside of it.
Do you understand?
As it is I could stand in the garden and drive the birds mad
with my messy human words. And I won’t, because I have things to do.
Instead I will write poems, because she liked poems; and draw birds, because
she likes birds; and sing folk songs, because I like those, and I am more than
whatever you can see of my mother in me.
Daisy Harris
Daisy Harris Poetry 