Lena Left Marie At Home And They Forgot Each Other

always dragging her mother to places she doesn't belong,
the girl needs some jeans,
how is it that she took her here?
shouldn't it be the other way around.
where does my daughter come from she wonders
as she sinks into the velvet at the front of the changing room door,
thinking of the items in the backyard that need reorganizing,
curtains shadow their faces, the mother and the sister,
she watches and aspires with each item tried on.
two sixty nine, my mama waits by the couch, while the girl
pretends that she is paying on her own.

i tried again to take my mama places
i knew she wouldn't belong,
maybe forced her into the lights to show her who she wasn't
and who she should have been,
tried to push myself further into the crowd
until i noticed her disappearing again in the corner of the store,
shading her eyes and wondering how her daughter got this way,
i almost sunk my hands into the tables but then i saw who i wasn't
standing by the door and i had to drag her out of there.

she says all the women hate her and its only the men that get along
but she never had many friends anyway.

my mother was real skinny when
she was younger, but my sister got the genes, stop screaming in the store about
the differences between us. if we are to be home
for dinner, we need to leave immediately. but mother you promised me some
more. three fourty seven and again the same routine, mama sitting on the couch
wondering why she came here.

my mother is in the kitchen fixing the computer while my father sits
with his wife on the front step enjoying drinks; my mother
disappears in the store while my father racks up purchases on his credit
card, my mother wants jeans for christmas so i lie to her about the
price so she will take them.

all the time i feel my body becoming more like yours while my mind becomes like hers.