What You Don't Know
I saw you, you know –
I caught the way you rolled your eyes
At your friend
I could feel the smirk you shared together
When I walked by with my sagging stomach
My old thighs wiggling out
Of my tired bathing suit
My gray hair straggling down past the
Fat rolls on my old back
If I knew you better
If I cared about you
I’d try to tell you
What you don’t know about this body
This body that bore and nursed two babies
This body that fought like a demon
Against the animal that went after them
That went after them and after me
When I reared up and showed these fangs
Without money without hope without sleep without respite
If I knew you better
If I cared about you
I’d try to tell you
What it feels like to be sick for so long
That you have no memory of a life
Without pain
You have no expectation of a day
Without exhaustion
Driven by so much yet to do yet to do
Babies to hold houses to clean money to earn gardens to grow sick ones to feed
Dragons to fight
Memories to honor
Anguish to bear
And since I’m giving you a piece of my mind
I will tell you just this one more thing -
If you were a fat old lady
And you walked past me at the pool
I would know in an instant
That there were many things about you
That I just don’t know.
- Another Mother 2012
I caught the way you rolled your eyes
At your friend
I could feel the smirk you shared together
When I walked by with my sagging stomach
My old thighs wiggling out
Of my tired bathing suit
My gray hair straggling down past the
Fat rolls on my old back
If I knew you better
If I cared about you
I’d try to tell you
What you don’t know about this body
This body that bore and nursed two babies
This body that fought like a demon
Against the animal that went after them
That went after them and after me
When I reared up and showed these fangs
Without money without hope without sleep without respite
If I knew you better
If I cared about you
I’d try to tell you
What it feels like to be sick for so long
That you have no memory of a life
Without pain
You have no expectation of a day
Without exhaustion
Driven by so much yet to do yet to do
Babies to hold houses to clean money to earn gardens to grow sick ones to feed
Dragons to fight
Memories to honor
Anguish to bear
And since I’m giving you a piece of my mind
I will tell you just this one more thing -
If you were a fat old lady
And you walked past me at the pool
I would know in an instant
That there were many things about you
That I just don’t know.
- Another Mother 2012
