Dangled

She wears me around her neck
….Rarely ever taken off
I think sometimes I’m used as a safeguard
Clutched when in fear,
sorrow,
despair.

Sometimes when she can’t sleep at night
Her eyes close tightly and she prays
Kissing the tarnished casing – she whispers my name
Almost reciting it as though if she stops -she’ll forget

oh mom, mom, mom- why did you have to go


Locked inside a heart
A black and white picture dated years before her time
A mother she never knew yet knows so well

How I wish she would stop
Her sadness travels so much further than her words
Looking down upon my daughter looking up at me
Her tears now swimming in my initials etched in her golden covered heart

I’m drowning in her pain
But she doesn’t even know I’m there

To her I’m dead
To her she’s alone

But I’m watching-
listening-
feeling everything she feels.
Wrapped around her neck- clutched inside her hand
I try my best to take away her pain

Soon she’ll fall asleep
Be swept away in a cascade of dreams.

And for as long as she keeps me close to her heart
Together we shall always be.
Wrapped around her neck-
There I’ll remain.
Dangled forever in her life.