Do you see me as I see myself in your reflection?
Looking down on your water that coats my skin a color I share with all
Years and years ago
Do you recognize me as your own?
Mama,
I’ve tried to wash this color off,
This
Mud yellow
A shade covering me
as I dip in
I want to bathe in you
to dye my hair lighter and lighter
I’m desperately scrubbing it off
This shade of yellow
Would you wash it off of me?
Mama, your temper is not to be tampered
My footsteps in the stream bed,
The bed laid with millions of those who come before me
The foolish and the innocents
Their boots soaked with your touches and caresses
Until you decided to hug them deeper
Deeper until they are all drowned out in love
You flow fearlessly
Throughout the start and end of history
You nurture and kill
You raise then reject
Would you float around me
when I’m battered with colors of the others
Mama,
I used to lay beside you
I hear
your screams and roars
Your rage and your sorrows
I lay beneath the greens you fostered
And I listen to you
Mama,
Tell me that I’m still
lying beside you
My skin
still blends in with yours
The skin
you molded from mud and dirt
Would you teach me how to love this creation?
Mama,
I’m stepping into your embrace
Little by little my skin turns in shade
And your arms are around me again Oh your gentle touches
You pull me closer to you
Closer and warmer
Your arms embrace me
and
I am once again your child
of clay
