{"id":459,"date":"2024-05-20T19:21:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T19:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/?p=459"},"modified":"2024-05-20T19:21:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T19:21:56","slug":"seeing-my-mother-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/seeing-my-mother-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing My Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seeing My Mother<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I avoid looking at myself in photos and mirrors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I grew up, the mirror on top of the dresser<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">greeted me every morning.&nbsp; In an early photo,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have a gap-toothed grin, my left ear sticks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">out from under my riding helmet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I like myself best in the photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of me and my horse sailing over the jump,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">hands and arms in line with the bit,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">heels down, toes forward.&nbsp; The latest picture<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">shows me hopping over the log,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">hands grabbing mane and toes sticking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When last at home, waking to a morning<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of clearing closets of the clothes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">that my mother would no longer wear,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I sat on the edge of my bed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">stared back at myself in that dresser mirror,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">lines around the eyes, longish face, left ear sticking out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These days, I try not to catch myself in the mirror<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">that came with the house but sometimes catch a glimpse<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of my reflection when walking by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I see myself<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">becoming my mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Unbroken Journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Dec 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seeing My Mother I avoid looking at myself in photos and mirrors.&nbsp; As I grew up, the mirror on top of the dresser greeted me every morning.&nbsp; In an early photo, I have a gap-toothed grin, my left ear sticks out from under my riding helmet.&nbsp; I like myself best in the photo of me&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/seeing-my-mother-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Seeing My Mother<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}