She was once his father’s lover 

Rendered in a portrait unseen

Nights like these

Late and inky and full of spleen

She remembers the frothy beginnings

She remembers the barbed wire ends

How distance will grow like mold on a tree

When she is expected to

Remember free

when she has ejected false memory 

It arrives like a low-flying hawk in flight

How she took the boy to Coney on

The pirate ship ride

When he was smaller than she

Childlike, eternal, funneled and frightened 

the fearful mother

What each woman is certain

She will always know

No matter the clutter of sons and daughters

Or nothing to show

He was her son, her pirate in tow

Until trapped like rats on a towering cage

She bellowed her anger

The two of them caged

Take us down

Take us down

She shouted on high

A long silent ride from the island of mirth

That night in her rooms when they fell down to earth

Together forever for what is worth

Still determined he said

That grown up child of dissent

Back to the past’s reality berth

But I am still determined he said to see you at your convenience, 

Let me know when, she said

Let me know when it will work