JANIS (My Mother)

Happy anomaly

Too busy playing;

To survive a stifling trio

Of conformity.

Her maiden popularity

Forgotten;

When remembering

The pain of condescension

She vowed to escape.

Cherubic Cinderella

Carried in the arms

Of drop dead misfortune

Whose gallery of manual expression

And battle scars

Veiled his orientation.

Motherhood expectations

And the American Dream

One by one mission accompli

And then she stepped down to Aloha.