MOTHER

Let us get this straight.

My mother does not hate you.

She's just like that.

She forgets people's names.

She is curt sometimes.

She hits

she beats

she bleeds strangers like ticks

� when she's premenstrual.

She's like that.

It's not about you.

It's about that overnight I spent

after that fight

� no, that's not right.

It's not you she hates

not you she despises.

She has nothing to say about you

not since I told her you were dead.