after Reginald Shephard’s “My Mother Was No White Dove”
I am not a Mom
yet Mom’s what they think.
I am a woman
and Mom’s what they see.
Adults write about their mothers
as if composing a greeting card.
Their mothers are kind, supportive
an inspiration even sixty years later.
People raised by troubled mothers
…those poems are rare.
Finally a poet whose mother was
“…the clouded-over night…”
When the young man returns my credit card,
says, Happy Mother’s Day! I am pleased
to think he does not know such darkness.
Mary C. Rowin’s poetry has appeared in publications such as Panopoly, Stoneboat, Hummingbird and Oakwood Literary Magazine. Recent awards include poetry prizes from The Nebraska Writers Guild, and Journal from the Heartland. Mary’s poem “Centering,” published in the Winter 2018 issue of Blue Heron Review, was nominated for the Push Cart Anthology. Mary lives with her husband in Middleton, Wisconsin.
