{"id":9053,"date":"2016-05-08T23:02:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T23:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=9053"},"modified":"2016-05-08T23:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T23:02:55","slug":"poem-for-my-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2016\/05\/poem-for-my-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem for my mother"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 1999: Light is a measure of time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientists have found the oldest
\npoint in the universe: a galaxy filled
\nwith new stars, and all day long
\nI\u2019ve been thinking about my mother.
\nHow long it has been since
\nthe nun came to fetch me from class
\nso I could wait for my brother to take me home,
\neven though I was in trouble
\nfor using CliffNotes<\/em> in my Macbeth paper.
\nI practiced driving on the way,
\nJack tossed the keys to me, figuring, perhaps,
\nconcentration would hold us together.
\nAll of us kids orbited around
\nher bed. I drove pretty good, I said
\nand she told me, \u201cThat\u2019s nice, honey,
\nnow go get something to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

This new galaxy, the paper says,
\nlooks young to scientists because
\nthe deeper they look back in space,
\nthe further they look back in time.
\nWhen I look back, I see her
\nbald as a nestling,
\nnot silver-haired and regal, not the young
\nwoman with the finger-waved Marcel who smiles
\nfrom the photo on the mantel.<\/p>\n

This new galaxy may look as it was
\na few billion years after the Big Bang
\nso scientists are trying to see how worlds form,
\nhow we coalesce from the sea of light elements.
\nMy father and mother met reaching
\nfor a piece of banana cream pie
\nat the cafeteria of the Edgewater
\nLaundry where they worked.<\/p>\n

Along with the Hubble, astronomers use
\na spectrograph and computers to separate
\noverlapping images and uncover the distant galaxy.
\nOne day she\u2019d wear blue shoes, the next,
\nthe pumps were black so she\u2019d call from her closet,
\nasking would I be a good girl and transfer
\nthings to her matching pocketbook.
\nI\u2019d put in her wallet, the chintzy eyeglass and cigarette
\ncases, the lipstick worn to a parabola,
\nonly tobacco bits, bobby pins,
\nor a sticky red pill left in the lining.<\/p>\n

This oldest galaxy is called Sharon,
\nafter the sister of one of the astronomers.
\nMy mother and I have the same middle name: Marie.
\nThrough the myopic lens of memory, I see mother,
\nthe shopping bag of library books at her feet.
\nShe glances up from the pages to watch with me
\nLaugh-In<\/em>, Burke\u2019s Law<\/em>, or Man from U.N.C.L.E.<\/em>
\nthose waves still lingering somewhere perhaps.<\/p>\n

It is not often I consider the heavens,
\nphysics, or universal truths
\nbut today it consoled me to think time never breaks
\nnor does light stop, but continues.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was first published in 2004 in the anthology Kiss Me Goodnight<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a>
May flower, no. 1 \u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"May<\/a>
May flower, no. 2 \u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 1999: Light is a measure of time Scientists have found the oldest point in the universe: a galaxy filled with new stars, and all day long I\u2019ve been thinking about my mother. How long it has been since the nun came to fetch me from class so I could wait for my brother to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,60,235,2968,2974,2133,2145,2543,39,2973,13,20,7,16,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-9053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-anthology","8":"tag-appreciation","9":"tag-grief","10":"tag-may","11":"tag-may-flowers","12":"tag-mothers-day","13":"tag-motherless-daughters","14":"tag-mothers","15":"tag-photography","16":"tag-poem-about-my-mother","17":"tag-poetry","18":"tag-publication","19":"tag-solace","20":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","21":"tag-weighed-words","22":"entry","23":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9060,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions\/9060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}