Miguel in Reads in Los Angeles

At Lambda Literary Foundation's 2012 Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, 45 fellows in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction each gave brief readings of their work.

This is mine.

this photo of you | Mother's Day

Delia R. Morales

Strange how in this digital existence

when everyone uploads, tags, and shares

photos instantaneously,

I have so few pictures of you.

The scanned photos I do have

show you as a young girl

in grey tones that hint

at the depth of your spirit

and playfulness.

Other photos show an older you

more like the mom I remember

when the responsibility of being

a wife and mother

settled into your soul.

Yet this photo has always intrigued me.

Despite the vibrant colors and vibrant times,

the photo fails to match yours.

You’re wearing a genuine smile of confidence

that I rarely saw except those times

when you were your own woman.

There was the time when you worked

at the community center

and dad worked out of town,

you’d take my sisters and me to dinner

on Fridays when you got paid.

Sitting in that small family diner,

converted from an old Dairy Queen,

eating hamburgers and fries

was the best part of the week

At the time I savored our weekly detour

simply because we ate out and ordered cokes.

Now I understand that our excitement

came from your new found sense of self.

For us kids, that was the real treat.

As much as I love you for being my mom,

I wish I had known more about you

at this time in your life,

and I wish that you had, too.