Mom was big on phases of development

            It meant she comprehended that

            A five year old would want to 

            Fend off any suitor with the

            Viciousness of a piranha

            And that by ten he’d thank

            Her husband for a day at the 

            Amusement park and take

            An ice cream cone with grace

            Fifteen was a stage that

            Emphasised the sneer and the

            Repudiation of a bourgeois household

            Hot and poisonous as

            Hell –as in 

            I couldn’t wait to get the hell out

            So I could breathe

            Which is exactly what I did

            As soon as law allowed

            That too she understood at first

            Until all hell broke loose

            When I set sail for good

            She was mystified to rage

            By my meandering –

            Perhaps because she didn’t have a way

            To read the stars

            From where she docked

            Looking up

            The heavens may have seemed

            An icon of tranquillity

            Untouched by wind or wave

            But well I knew –

            And so did she –

            That every shining point,

            Circling or fixed,

            Concealed a fire