Today's poem is Resemblance by Ellen Sander. It is read by Arisa White.
Resemblance
My mother
beautiful, snappish and smart
with very little sense, left
My father
handsome, abusive, alcoholic
with a hearty sense of humor
His family
expunged us from their wings, holiday invitations and
birthday presents dwindled
Me
an adolescent of little confidence and no nice clothes
set more adrift, slumped in shame
Exile
turned to solitude, turned to recomposing, to a
world inside a world to haunt museums and tiny theaters
Time
a sloppily unifying principle, brought us back together
my bylines and damage as open stains of paper
Our last auntie
a stylish, loving Dutch who kept her accent, complained in tones, lay
nestled in her coffin after 90 some odd years
My elder cousin
in the row before me, so like his father, square chin, eloquent eyes, the ease of
expensive shoulders, turns and says “you remind me how beautiful your mother was”