Leaving

How to leave scars:
If you ask Mother,
she'll tell you it isn't very hard
in easy quiet ways
with love or something similar
like maternal instinct
like crescent crevices, red
and left by fingernails
like swallowing sweat
like her mother
and hers
like feet flattened on kitchen linoleum
like razing mountains with words
where we stood at the zenith
collecting our suns and stars

my mother keeps
a drawerful of
Chinese handcuffs
those children's toys that
hold our fingers
more when we tug and tug
as children will do
until we gnaw them free