Siren

 

You parade her photos before him,

proof that your mother’s beauty was not a daughter’s delusion.

Side by side in one snap,

He ignores you at 14 unlovely as a juvenile bird,

but ogles her film star pout.

 

So you are hurled back to that day

she bowled up to college in scarlet sports car,

snatching the gaze of the boy, who had replaced Donnie in your dreams,

and slouching and snarling on the homeward drive

your pride in her curdled to jealousy.

 

Now un-balanced by middle aged love you consider

scarring her face with acid home truths,

banishing her pictures to forgotten corners,

because decades after her death it seems

your mother is still able to steal your boyfriends.