immigrant ambition

My mother’s ancient dreams sit heavy on my tongue
her guileless disposition
the way she moves about like a child
a credulous animated character
Her wistful smile at my burning passion for literature
Her childhood that ceases to exist
giving up on her ambition because he said so with an evil shrug
still desperately yearning for it decades later
and she staggers away
head bowed with woe
Caring for far too many men in her adolescence she seldom hears from in her dotage
In my dreams my mother is free
in my dreams my mother is unmarried
in my dreams I do not exist