Mother-to-Daughter – a poem by Joan Bernard

Mother-to-Daughter

My dry swallow
as I remove your statue
of the Virgin from the dresser,
causes my ears to crackle.

She will be exiled to the basement,
aside your ceramic Pieta,
a bookmarked bible,
Pope John Paul II’s 8 x 10.

Stripped of all that was yours,
this bedroom where you slept
and prayed, will be ready 
for my chic upgrade,
un-convent remake;

but for the crucifix,
still hanging over the doorway, 
your crystal rosary,
no longer draping 
from Mary’s hands, 
but clutched in my palm.

Joan Bernard’s poetry has been published in The Main Street Rag, the Aurorean, Connecticut River Review, The North American Review, and others. She lives in Boston, MA and Thompson, CT.