Motherly misery

I don’t know why I look to my mother
for her shadow never stays.
promises are whispered
soft as fur, then shed.

I grow between hunger and shame,
guilty for wanting warmth,
from her body.

she is not cruel.
only miserable.
the kangaroo with a torn pouch
sometimes I’m carried,
sometimes I fall.

I gather my own shelter:
sticks, spit, scraps––
digging through what others discard
to make something that might hold.

then she returns, a bird
swoops low, lifts me briefly,
as if love were instinct
never permanent.

I don’t know why I look to my mother
for her shadow won’t stay.

Precious Ejim is a writer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores womanhood, longing, and emotional vulnerability in contemporary life. She is interested in intimacy, interiority, and the emotional textures of being young and female.