I do not miss you.

I do not miss you.
I miss the idea of you—
the one who would stroke my hair when I feverspiked,
not the one who said my tears were manipulation.

I mourn the woman in the grocery store
who lets her toddler pick the cereal.
I cry at movies where mothers stay.
I have rewritten your ending a thousand times.

You are alive.
And still, I am orphaned.


#poem
#issues
#pinterest
#tiktok
#mom