ask me to tell how it feels <br />remembering your mother's face <br />turned to water under the white words <br />of the man at the shoe store. ask me, <br />though she tells it better than i do, <br />not because of her charm <br />but because it never happened <br />she says, <br />no bully salesman swaggering, <br />no rage, no shame, none of it <br />ever happened. <br />i only remember buying you <br />your first grown up shoes <br />she smiles. ask me <br />how it feels.<br /><br />Lucille Clifton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/memory/
