Your Hair Looks Like Taillights

You talk to your mother in Spanish, your sister in English, and then in numbers to order Chinese take-out. And you love to talk, especially about how you grew up in a one-room walk-up. So proud of your history, of how you earned everything on your own, all your success. I can see your face change when you start the story, the flow of it, like water over rocks. When I did meet your mother, it was in her final days. My question, “Why today, why now?” Your reply was tailored like a suit, “Because she wouldn’t remember you.”

Photo Credit: Iain Cuthbertson