
I turn and don’t expect my mother’s face
I ask how did you enter this poem
she says it wasn’t easy
she is dressed in my favorite horse-print silk sheath
and dripping lake water
says she wore it to trick my lover
I want to ask how could you but instead
I reach behind her and break a vase
she used to love but we are surrounded
by dogs some of them used to sleep
at our bedsides but don’t
anymore she grabs my hand and who am I anyway
to keep asking
her to leave why not take her face
and explain the damned thing