Dear Mother,
I consider myself an expert
In dead mothers.
I have twenty-two years of experience
Tending to my mother wounds,
Hoping to heal them
Before they wound my children.
At this point,
I’m not sure you make my
Top five list
of dead people I’d like to have over for dinner
But maybe if it were possible
We could go for coffee instead.
Unlike those on my top five list
I have a feeling that if you are there –
If there is a there on the other side of life –
That you have always been with me
My news would not be news to you
But I’d love to hear how death has treated you
If it is healing or something else
And if they have art museums on the other side.