The Source of Separation

She was a single parent
Struggling to raise
Four children by herself,
Working two jobs
Just to house
And feed them all.
Those were difficult times.
There was seldom
Enough money
To make ends meet,
And hunger was
Never far away.
They sustained themselves
Largely on love,
And made the most of
What little time
They had together.
All her oldest daughter
Remembers of that period
Was the time when
She was nine years old,
And her and the rest
Of her siblings
Were sent off
To live with
Their grandmother
For a year.
The daughter
Interpreted that to mean
Her mother
Didn’t want them
Any more.
When they returned,
Their mother
Had remarried,
And an icy distance
Settled in between
Mother and daughter
That would last
For the next
Thirty years.
The mother had
Used the time
The kids were away
To put her life together,
To find security
For herself
And her children.
It would take
Almost a lifetime
For the daughter
To begin to understand
And appreciate
What her mother had done
And what her stepfather
Had taken on.