my mother used to whore herself
and my father
would reap the benefits of her labor
it was almost as if she was absent
absent from her own life
i remember
she would scrub the floors for the white folks
just to come home
to cook and to cle
for the man who broke her
and i Love to watch her dance to the tunes on
the soul stations, yeah
just to ease her mind
but my mother
she was vindictive in her own fashion
so she passed down to me her traits
like that of her brown eyes and her dark hair