a series of names #5 (or a winter hexagon)

what my momma leaves behind

You can lose your years while still breathing, to the violence of a man’s selfishness; that too is a kind of death, that too is a kind of burying and memorial for who you might have been.

My momma lost her life to my father’s selfishness while she was still alive, from his different kinds of pains.

And on this day, I remember her, as a whole person whos…