Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

Mother

I can not blame you anymore.
The time for that has long passed.
I can not be angry at you
for all that you didn’t give me
or for all that you did.
You wouldn’t understand.
Nor did you understand twenty years ago
when I tried to tell you.
The sting of your hand across my face
still burns.
I have been alone
in my life raft of one,
holding pain like a life preserver against my chest
thinking that would save me from the waves.