MY MOTHER

She lived in the Polish projects
In the city of deep blues
The new world ghetto - Newark, New Jersey
So many souls there, passing through
There were heavy-hearted immigrants
And barroom brawls that spilled into the street
It was a heavy world for a little girl
And she felt the weight of it
As she tried to sleep

Her head was filled with magic
Kaleidoscopic images danced through
She could hear the angels singing
And they swept her away from her room
She gathered coins in the morning
That the night time had released
Flung from brawlers' pockets
Cast out by the drunken ruckus
In such a fleeting world
They were something she could keep

She took the train into New York City
She was fifteen, and carried a knife
She watched the strangers
She danced with the danger
Alone, she was free to be alive
She could harness the fear
That was already there
Haunting the dark corners of her life
This made her fearless
A special creature
Beautiful, raw, and composed of light

She learned her prayers in Polish
At Saint Casimir's Catholic School
The holy dove, inlaid above
Painted gold and red and blue
She told me ghost stories
But they were her stories
In the darkness, there's a light that shines through
She didn't need to capture it
Or prove it was magic
That was something that she already knew

It was in the kaleidoscopic images
In the angelic voices
In the colors of the flowers she planted
And in the places she danced through
It held her close
It never left her
The clear, bright light
Shining deep inside her
There was magic in the world, after all
It was the love that had come
To guide her heart through.