Literature
My mother and I do not get along.
I spent eighteen years fighting to be good enough
fighting to be the best at whatever I was going to do
fighting to make her happy.
She said she just wanted me to be happy
but when I was happiest
she was dissatisfied.
And when I finally could tell her
that for eighteen years
every hour every minute
I’d been fighting
for her,
she wouldn’t hear it,
because it’s not enough for her
and sometimes she can be wrong
but no one else
is allowed
to be right.
And when I told her
- let it all spill out in messy chunks,
my fear and anxiety, the constant pressure of her words and disapproving eyes
glassy and green, something I once wished