Waiting For Your Birthday

The best poems about mothers
Feature specific and evocative episodes.
For example, the time I wanted to eat
The plastic fruit at the Orange Julius,
Or the time you sent me to the barber alone
And I came back with a mohawk.

But this is not a poem about you.
It is about me, because I leave this here
Expecting something back.

Which reminds me of being eight,
On this day years ago.
It was your birthday,
And all the kids got new bikes.