Mothers with Pictures
The mother instinct
an elusive fiction to tie wings down
to the killing board for the butterfly transformation
from living flight to iridescent icon
A statue in the temple niche
I have seen the joy in your Byzantine eye
like a two-dimensional saint
as you gushed proudly over coffee
the photo of your child glossy
reflected as sunlight from your breast
and we are bound in the bondage of mother love
as we are bound to the shroud wrapped mother martyr
the one on cable news tonight
she gushes tearfully clutches the portrait
of her man-child now disappeared
bloody tears flood the desert
as we clutch each other’s hands
her pain drives the killing nail
through us all.
For Claudia
By KXV13
May 24, 2006
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