Now, too, my mother gone
What a can of monkeys
Photos never tell the truth
Or they do, much too much too much too much
I try not to think about myself
But there you are looking at me
You loved my mother
You missed your mother
I loved my mother
She told us, “your soul is zero”
Brainwashed by the nuns, we’d always say
I loved my nuns, she’d reply
How do you ruin your children?
Proverb: It’s difficult to be stupid
To move out of this maze
Easy to be smart, maybe,
Copyright © 2024 by Charlotte Meehan. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 21, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.