The Queen Mother and the Queen.

weak & wounded words pour from my mouth
o mother no
not again not another exchange of hurt.
i am finished,
in your eyes i have seen love, i swear. what about the
sledding times? apples and horses and diamonds-in-concrete?
hold tightly to that memory i try to, but
don' t you see in my eyes, the normal defeat
weeping. (its been years. its been years)
i think that as new baby i was afraid to cry in front of you.
i have always been awed by your strength, but afraid too.
once, i think, you were tender & green & shattered even as I;
but somewhere somehow you became
a tower of thorns
and why why why do you want to add another dagger-child
to your quiver?

more noise (abandon ship).
there is no wildness like that of a reckless woman; no savagery in the world like her tongue.