My Mama

Poem by d.Simone / Painting by Annie Frances Lee

God why
God why this woman 
Why you choose her for my mama
She got only a 6th grade education you know 
She don’t make much money
She been abused 
She been used
She had a baby as a baby
She always workin’
She can’t help me with my homework 
She can’t show me how to protect myself 
She don’t think I’ll be anything but poor
I’ll be like her
That’s what she believes
She tell me dat
Forty years later
She was right and she was wrong
This woman didn’t have much to teach me
Like all the successful people around me
But what little she knew she showed me
I have watched my mother 
And this what her life taught me
She taught me how to love
How to give 
How to be kind
How to pray
How to hope 
How to survive
How to aid
How to do hard things
How to get up again
How to be still
How to forgive
How to dream differently 
How to want differently
How to find a way when the answer is no
When no one else believes I can
When no one else sees me
When no one else wants me
When no one else regards me
When no one else loves me 
When no one else will give to me
When no one else will forgive me
When no one else will help me 
She taught me how to do all things
That no one else can do
Love extraordinarily 
That’s how I am like my mother
But she is beyond extraordinary 
She is other worldly 
She has a heart like God’s
She would die for an enemy
I won’t do dat
No I won’t do dat
Not yet anyway
Thank you God for Mama
She perfect!