No need for flowers
or breakfast in bed;
a handmade card will do. 

What I want most of all
is for this day 
to be different
than tomorrow. 

I want the children dressed, 
listened to, 
fed, 
and entertained 
by someone 
other than me. 

I want the house tidied,
the toys put away,
the dishes done,
the food prepared,
the groceries shopped,
the linens changed,
the crumbs wiped –  
and the butts, too – 
by someone
other than me. 

I don’t want 
to buckle a car seat 
and to rush someplace 
that no one cares to be. 

This Mother’s Day
I’d like to remember
that I am a mother,
but more,
that I am a person. 
Will you help me with that?

I know that we have mothers to celebrate and thank: 
my mother, your mother, 
dead mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, 
mothers who aren’t biologically our mothers,
but who are mothers to us, nonetheless. 
Could we plan for them 
on a different day?
Or, if it’s being with our kids that they’d like,
tell them that our kids 
will be here with shoes and coats 
at the ready
waiting to be taken 
for a walk
or to the park
or for a bike ride. 
They don’t sit long enough 
for church 
and brunch
and a play, 
which means I wouldn’t be sitting 
for any of that either. 

Let me go to the bookstore
or the coffee shop 
alone. 
Let me look for a pair of pants
that fit 
without having to chase a child
back into the dressing room. 
Let me take a bath
and wash my hair 
without playing 
peek-a-boo
with a dripping wet shower curtain. 

I love all that being a mother has given me, 
but what I’d like most of all
for today
is to be a person. 

If I could have that today,
then tomorrow –  
or tonight, in the middle of the night – 
I can come back refreshed 
as a mother.