Mama and Me

As the April snow began to make its journey down from the sky and onto the Earth,

so did I,

bore in a sterile room with four white walls.

Mama was scared,

scared for her life, scared for her youth.

She clenched the handles on the bed with all her might,

for she had no hand to hold.

 

I was a stubborn child,

refusing to be harvested from the womb in which I was familiar.

After nearly two days of pushing, groaning, and sheer agony,

Doc cut the lifeline between my mother and I

signaling that I had to fight for my own life.

I’ve been fighting ever since.

 

Daddy was never there.

He made Mama believe she was somebody.

She gave everything to him,

he gave her a child;

a child who never met her father.

I was all my Mama had,

and so she named me Haley

the prettiest name she’d ever heard.

 

Mama always wanted a girl

to raise as her own,

but I was more than she bargained for.

I grew up kickin’ and screamin’,

just as she did.

Mamas friends say I’m just like her

and admire it,

but its a curse.

They see the long legs,

blonde hair and blue eyes,

I see the impatience,

the personality and temper we share.

As far as I can remember,

I’ve not only sought out trouble,

but I’ve defined it,

Just like Mama.

See Mama and I are one of a kind,

we're the same person

always getting in eachothers way.

We fight and bicker,

but somehow we manage to be there for eachother,

through pain and through happiness.

Mama and I are inseparable,

it was always just us,

in it for each other.

 

Mama took care of me

as best she could,

but she struggled to make ends meet.

She got an apartment,

but to me it was just a place with plain white walls

and a mattress that lay on the floor for Mama and me.

I never called that place home and neither did Mama.

She worked tirelessly

taking over any shift she could.

We struggled but we always found joy in the little things.

Whenever Mama got paid,

she’d take my hand and hold me close.

We’d walk down the stairs,

then down the road.

 

We’d stop at a green and orange gas station.

This was my favorite place.

Every payday this is where we’d go for slushies,

the best treat in the whole world.

Before we left,

Mama and I would always refill our cups

and take some along for the adventure back to the apartment.

 

Mama and me have since carried out 17 years worth of adventures,

but the next is the greatest to come.

It’s time I fly the coop.

Fly as high as the sky,

and make a name for myself.

A name to be heard as Mama’s,

Mama’s and mine of course.

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