Only Human

She says "I'm fine",

but I know that she's lying.

I heard her crying...

last night in the laundry room with the door closed and the washer running.

That was when I began to understand,

Mothers aren't always stoic or resilient.

In many ways they are more deeply afflicted by wounds of the heart.

Mostly because they have to hide them, 

deny them proper periods of lamentation.

I was shattered then, compulsively drawn to the idea

that nobody was safe from emotional failings.

But I digress...

She gazed at me with haunted eyes

and I realized, I'd never really looked at her before.

It was beautiful and terrifying

All those years objectifying

and all along she'd been more human than I'd given her credit for.