Momma Leigh
They took her
kids away around three
I was up alone, in the dark, making tea
the strangest feeling it had awoken me
Those days: stirs, echoes, turns of the key
hushes of the past they came nightly
Drugs and no groceries, he and she
runaway pops and the momma named Leigh
I suppose that's the rhyme of this story
Snotty nosed
and scared
the youngest girl
pigtailed angel of the night
fell full fear in the streetlight
Officer carried her
strict-straight and gloved
as if the dirt-ridden child was to be forever unloved
Sunup: the kids were gone
Momma Leigh behind bars
Cause momma
to be
couldn't be in this society
and now momma Leigh
momma Leigh's gone you see
and as we hide behind green ambiguity
all I see are those two children taken in front of me
while all and sundry, slept comfortably, in white tranquility
she never asked
for sympathy
she just wanted to be free
and have what she never had you see
a cozy little home and a family
Now Momma Leigh
her story sits quietly
on this black and white obituary. (how fitting)
