The Refrigerator Poems

Lineage

The first mother came on a boat
without her husband.
She couldn't wait.
Her baby died, so she had another one,
but rarely held it.
That baby turned into
the second mother,
and she called the dog by her daughter's name
when she was scolding it.
Her daughter wanted to be a good mother,
but other things were more important.
She always said, "What am I? Chopped liver?"
Her son was my father.
He read the newspaper like someone was hurting him,
but there was no one there
except me.
I'll be the fifth.
I already practice breathing in a way
that makes me radiate kindness.
I already imagine my baby asleep beside me
and I coo, Poor baby.