When My Mother Mothered

I bought the gold chain,

the most delicate one

I had to            close my eyes

to know it was

like the one                                                          

she never took off

I had night terrors        you are

not supposed to remember them

I do                              they crept

into corners of my awake

I would crawl onto her side

reach for her necklace             

            feel the links fall faint

the feel like the falling

of one grain of sand after another

By M Chapman Orozco

Biography:

M Chapman Orozco is drawn to concepts of trauma, memory, family, and chance. She feeds the beast that is her interest in probability by making it her day job as a technical writer for nonprofit organizations working to disrupt probability.

M recognizes that in all probability, her own upbringing and trauma should have produced different results. M volunteers teaching poetry at an after-school program for low-income students in her community. M holds an undergraduate degree from UCLA (Religious Studies, English minor), and an MBA from Whitworth University.She lives in Spokane, Washington with her philosopher partner, family, and dog.