A Mother without a Name

Sun kissed skin and dirty knees

Take me back when I was free

The way my mom was always home

To help push me, to help me grow

I turned an age she didn’t like

I was only eight, left alone at night

I called and begged to say I need you

Eating anything that I could chew

Catching the bus and going to school

The presence of my mother felt like a ghoul

I raised myself on books and magic

The way you left me, people said it was tragic

That the kitchen was bare, no food in sight

But nobody took me, no guardian at night

You all abandoned me locked away in a house

You didn’t care, you took off your blouse

The men that came between you and I

You are the reason I learned to lie

I am okay, I am safe

But there’s truth when I say I’m filled with rage

I want to go back when I was six

Back when you struck me with withered sticks

At least then you were home

But now nobody watches when I roam

A strange man came by one night

Me, alone, struck with fright

A playground he came to see

The only thing I had left to feel free

The money you needed, you took it from me

But still away, this is how it should be

He came into the house, I was twelve

It was dark outside, I was beside myself

He looked at me, alone and young

He handed me cash and then he flung

For months that playground sat in my backyard

Oh how I played on that until I was scarred

He never came to claim what was his

A stranger showed me kindness my mother never did.