Poem for her

My mother gave birth to infidelity
Breastfed her till her nipples bled
But Mama, steady heartbeat like an albatross around her neck, she learnt to love her.
That's the only way my father would stay
Mama had to learn to look away.

Mirrors gave me my mother’s eyes
An abyss which echoed the cries of women like us
Women with hips a man can't hold
Women with haemorrages where wombs should have been.

Is it the light as air love I give you that makes it okay for you to come home smelling of her?
You know she left traces of her presence on your back right?
Night-kissed marks where her nails dug into your shoulder.
The moon taunts me with stories of your dalliances, she sees it all.
An audience pregnant with secrets, her biggest ally.

Mama's heart broke around the time her hymen was shattered.
Stars were ripped from her eyes, romance was for fools, she knew this.
When I cried about you her comfort was given through clenched teeth, balled-up fists, tapping feet.
She had no patience for stories of how perfect it was in the beginning
She knew they all ended the same. We're all Eve, we’re all even.
She let my tears fall, let myself give in to the pain she knew intimately
Then she bitterly reminded me that I suckled from the same breasts that bitch did.