
Dear Mother,
I am sorry.
I will not bear your grandchildren;
I will not bring a boy to meet you one day,
I will not show you the ring he gave me.
I am not heartless;
I do have a heart.
And it bleeds and aches
and beats as any other heart.
And I do love.
I love her.
I love her more with every passing moment.
I love the way she talks,
fast, breathless,
and her eyes glow,
and she then gets shy
because she thinks she talks too much
or because she sees
how I look at her in that very moment.
I love how she smells like home
and something sweet
and warm.
I love how she knows everything
but does not know that.
I love how she holds my hand, firmly,
and kisses me,
gently on the cheek.
I love her.
And my love is nothing like the movies.
It hurts and it burns
and it chokes
and leaves scars on my inner thighs.
It smells of bitter cigarette smoke
and tastes of cheap wine and wet salty lips
and it feels like that one Arctic Monkeys song
put on repeat
while you lie down on the floor
wailing.
I don't feel happy.
But that's okay.
Love is not beautiful.
Love is not kind.
Love doesn't have to fix you.
It doesn't have to bring you joy
and that's okay.
And I accept the hurt, the anger,
the heartache, the hatred, the tears
and the marks on my body
because my pain is better
than the dark void of nothingness.
Believe me, I've been there before.
I love her.
And I wish I could talk to you about it.
Wrap my arms around you
and cry in your shoulder
while you softly rock me like a baby;
and listen to your stories
about father and you,
how it hurt at first and how it soothed after;
and I wish you would tell me that it will be okay,
that she will love me back
or I will fall in love again
or that I do not need someone else
to feel whole and complete
and human.
But I am afraid.
And it feels like I shouldn't be,
because mother's love is unconditional;
mother's love is forgiving,
it's liberating.
But it's not.
Love is not beautiful.
Love is not kind.
And I am afraid.
Because I don't want to find out
what does your love look like
really.