Map to Motherhood

A mother who can't let go

is a mother who robs her child

of the external experiences in life

shaping, growing all the while

into who they're meant to be.

Cages shrink, never grow,

sometimes so small it beguiles

like how tensions build to resist knife

it makes a mind go wild

yet sometimes in, toward destiny.

Hands clutched too tight

mistake love for control,

call fear protection,

call absence gold yet

wings bruise when taught ceiling is sky.

Walls don't teach children like falling does

guidance is a lantern, not a leash.

The world must mark them,

scuff their knees with meaning,

teach them which storms to curse

and which to praise.

A mother’s task is not to script the path

but to bless the feet

that wander off her map,

to trust the pulse she helped to start

will find its rhythm

its rebellion

its home.