We were the lighthouses
watching our wooden mothers
haul themselves across tides
of liquor store receipts,
cradling anchors in their stomachs.
I watched her drink herself into a sinkage
a few years ago.
Living room couches just aren’t the same
after a piece of someone has died in between
the cushions.
Instead of looking for loose change,
I was always hoping to pull out
a handful of lint
& find some of her sobriety tangled in it.
We were the frail fingers
getting stuck in the mouths of glass bottles
just to put our mothers back together.