Macabre Meditations on my Mother
By Reid Baer

I fear I was abandoned as
a baby by my mother on
the steps of a nearby mental
institution to be reared by

the inmates and the head nurse or
heady mistress after some sex
to my utter distress I have
thought for so long the female who

declared she bore me was really
only away, on holiday,
just absent and no tears were shed
by me anyway for many

years I did NOT realize how much
I loved her and hated her, how
much she ripped my guts out and how
many women were her mirrors.

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