TOOTHBRUSH
Toothbrush!
He’s using my
toothbrush!
Old, smelly
yellow-teeth is using my toothbrush!
Doesn’t he
know that the scraggly, fraying mint-green toothbrush is his?!
Well, yours is
green, too, he tells me
Army
khaki-fatigue green is not mint green
Fresh, stiff,
cream-colored bristles are not matted white crinkly strands of fiber
Brothers! They
think they’re so great, but mine is a disgusting, old curmudgeon
I mean he’s
three years older than me
He thinks he
can push me around
He grins at my
fury as I see him brushing my toothbrush over his yellow teeth
Is it catchy?
He says he’s been using it a long time
ARE MY TEETH
GOING TO TURN UGLY AND YELLOW, TOO?!
MOM! GET ME A
NEW TOOTHBRUSH NOW!
I don’t have
time to go to the store today
BUT HE’S
USING MY TOOTHBRUSH
Hmmm. I just
won’t brush my teeth until you get me another one.
You wouldn’t
either if it was yours.
I can see it
now –
Are smelly feet
catchy, too?…
JUST IS…
Just is justice
I’m just so many things
Just a doctor
I try to fix them, I don’t give
them their diseases
Just a wife – Don’t ask me, I don’t
keep his calendar –
I’m just a mom…
I don’t know much, you know
When Taylor was born, he knew that I
knew everything
He knew that I was infallible – he
eyed me with trust, hope, love.
I was at the pinnacle of his world,
then –
I shot out of the box, tried to
steady my wobbly skis, and I was off!
Down the slide, steadying,
redirecting, still hanging by an ever
thinning strand
faster, faster, heading for the base,
falling, falling,
barely hanging on.
Not long ago, Taylor said
emphatically,
"Mom, you don’t know
anything!"
I went careening out of the tracks.
About the third time he said this to
me, I realized that he was right.
Regaining my unsteady course, I told
him,
"You’re right, I don’t know
anything.
Do you know why I don’t know
anything?
It’s because I’m a parent –
Parents don’t know anything."
To his uncomfortable, squirrelly
look, I said,
"Trust me, I know.
I have two parents. They don’t know
anything."
Someday, I’ll take off from the
jump Whooosh! –
Free-falling, never knowing where or
how I’ll land.
I simply pray for strength and
balance as a parent.
I’m just a parent.
I never knew the job was so hard.
I only knew that my parents didn’t
know anything.
Today, I know that my parents know at
least one thing.
When they think of me, they know that
I am just a mom.
Just is justice…
Maggie Kemp
lives in Lempster, NH, with her husband and two children. She spends a lot of
time watching loons. You should hear her read her Toothbrush poem.
