Father Adam provided the Y factor
Mother Eve contributed the X
Add to these genes their ‘original sin’
As well as the ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ of our sex
All that still applies, but then again
For other traits we look closer to ‘now’
To the folks who managed to birth us
And for living today modeled ‘how’
They did their best to teach basics
They spanked us when we felt it unfair
But they saw to our needs and desires
Often all we gave back was despair
At other times that ol’ Adam/Eve attitude
Would crop up in barely restrained glee
And all we’d see through our disdain
Were their ways we vowed not to be
Yet the enduring ‘ways’ of my Mom
All her foibles have cropped up in me!
Each year they became more apparent
No matter how much in denial I’d be
There was her collection of tissue wads
Tell-tale signs of where she’d been
I keep boxes of the stuff everywhere
And need them under pillows in bed
There was her constant claim of ‘anemia’
Due to her bruising at any ol’ touch
Yet here I am with the same blue dots
Taking iron for the same, pretty much
Mom loved her big churchy hats
I love hats, too, but the less formal
Like her I seem to love collecting them
Both of us had/have more than is normal
At times my eyes water like hers did
Once I thought I had her ‘sinus condition’
And when browsing albums featuring me
That’s her face in my photo renditions!
She was generous to a fault maybe so
And spent way more than Dad’s pocketbook
He’d find clothes with price tags hanging
Which friends with her permission just took
You see, any who asked she had no qualm
Giving away old things or brand new
Not to mention the shirt off her back
And this trait, yes, I appear to have too
But there are a few things, as well
About Mom which I’d love to take after
Like her flourishing ways with flowers
And her antics that brought family laughter
I don’t have her particular love of roses
But with time I’m gaining her green thumb
And I’m too serious to play the ‘clown’
But find I now laugh at myself with aplomb
She breezily talked with all neighbors
No matter what color, class or stripe
So shy was I, to be in the shadow she cast
Now bolder, I too strive to be that type
Every year another eccentricity
Is recalled about my beloved Mom
I duly take note of them in myself
Praying to Jah on her behalf: ‘Shalom’
By Jahgirl
08/11/2015