Saturday Verse: Nikki Giovanni - "Mothers"

MOTHERS 

the last time i was home
to see my mother we kissed
exchanged pleasantries
and unpleasantries pulled a warm
comforting silence around
us and read separate books 

i remember the first time
i consciously saw her
we were living in a three room
apartment on burns avenue 

mommy alway sat in the dark
i don't know how I knew that but she did 

that night i stumbled into the kitchen
maybe because i've always been
a night person or perhaps because I had wet
the bed
she was sitting on a chair
the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through tiny window panes
she may have been smoking but maybe not
her hair was three-quarters her height
which made me a strong believer in the samson myth
and very black 

i'm sure i just hung there by the door
i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady 

she was very deliberately waiting
perhaps for my father to come home
from his night job or maybe for a dream
that had promised to come by
"come here" she said "i'll teach you
a poem: I see the moon
              the moon sees me
              god bless the moon
              and god bless me
i taught that to my son
who recited it for her
just to say we must learn
to bear the pleasures
as we have born the pains