Phenomenal Mother

How did that silly poem I modified go?

When I walk out the door, people crowd around me saying,
"What is your secret to motherhood?"
"I only do what every mother should.
It's in the kindness of my voice,
the tenderness of my touch
that makes my children love me so much."

Here's to the mother who still bears the scar I gave her coming into this world.

To the mother who managed not to kill me, the most stubborn toddler of all time, before I turned four.

To the mother who let me "arrange" the shoes in her closet in creative ways.

To the mother stayed up with me past midnight helping me finish a Revolutionary War packet that I procrastinated.

To the mother who knows just how to make my sweet potatoes.

To the mother who I could always find in the backyard garden.

To the mother who did all my laundry even when I was well into high school.

To the mother who would follow me around the house reading out of poetry books.

To the mother who giggled with me in the middle of the night because I somehow fell into the wall climbing into bed.

To the mother who picked me up from school when I was devastated that I didn't make the play.

To the mother who dealt with (and even seemed to like) all the teenage boys that I paraded into the house.

To the mother who could somehow get things to grow when no one else could.

To the mother who knew that I would end up with my husband even before I did.

To the mother who let my husband and I live in her basement and eat all her food when we fled from our first apartment.

To the mother who comforted me, crazy, pregnant me, when someone ate my leftover Chinese food.

To the mother who obsessively compulsively wiped counters while I was laboring and then stayed up all night with me while I had my first child.

To the mother who took said child when I didn't think I could do it.

To the mother who always knows how to spice food.

To the mother who takes my daughter in the morning so I can sleep in when I'm staying at her house.

To the mother who I can always call about random medical questions, and she somehow always knows the answers.

To the mother who got her degree after we were all grown because she wanted to be a teacher.

To the mother who knows all things grammar, and will edit papers on demand.

To the mother who mothers those who need mothers.

To the mother who never gives up on her children.

To the mother who loves us all unconditionally.

I am a mother, phenomenally.
Phenomenal mother- that's me.

Love you, Mommy.

Ashley