Underneath My Mom

Underneath my Mom
Is an expired wild child
Complete with a hidden tattoo
That reads 'Viktor'
With a 'k'
Spelled the extra-Russian way

I asked her
Who 'Viktor' was
When I caught a glimpse of the tattoo
At the beach one summer

And she told me
He was a beat poet
From the village
And that he used to write poems
On her stomach
After pressing ink
On his fingertips

I gagged
But secretly
I thought it was kind of cool

She giggled
And told me
If a boy ever wrote poems on my stomach
It would be the last thing he ever wrote
Before my father broke his hands

But she said it in a sort of...

Wink Wink way

Underneath my mother
Is a liberated woman
Wrapped up in a silent shroud
But every once in awhile
She pokes her head out

Like when I wanted to work at the packing plant
To make some extra cash
And my dad told me that was a man's job

My Mom leaned over his recliner
Took the beer out of his hand
Downed it
And told him
That no job is manlier
Than pushing a eight-pound baby
Out of your body
In the middle of an intersection
Because your husband doesn't believe you
When you tell him you're going into labor

Then she handed him back the beer
And told me to fill out the application
And sign my name with a smiley face

Underneath my mom
There's a landscape
Of blue possibility

A list of things
She's going to do
In two years
When I'm out
Revolutionizing the fashion industry
With my radical style

She says she wants to go back to Fiji
And back to Norway
And back to Greece

And what I love is that she says 'back to'
Like it's no big deal
That she's been to all these places before

She says she might stop by Russia
And see if she can run into Viktor
But she only says that when my dad's not listening
Which is...pretty often

Underneath my mother
Is a well-read intellectual
Who gave me a copy of 'Fear of Flying'
Wrapped up in a bow
Like it was 'Goodnight Moon'

'Here,' she said, 'This is your mother.'

It was her copy of it
And it had notes on the side
And passages circled
And when I looked back at the front
It was autographed

'Beth, Give this to your daughter one day, Erica'

Underneath my mom
There's a wide expanse
Of things I don't know
And never will

Every day she teaches me
That part of being a woman
Is slowly unraveling yourself
To those closest to you

Carefully peeling off the outer exterior
Until your entire life
Is one brilliant story
That flares out
Right at the end
Like a firework

To say it less poetically--

My Mom's a really cool chick

But on the surface
She's a total hardass
Who grounds me all the time
And stifles my spirit

Lucky for my Mom
I see right through her