thank you for always having a piano

thank you, mom

for making me
the daughter
of red injuns
white pastors
tobacco farmers
beauty queens
swaggering outlaws
and world famous circus giants

thank you
for my self worth
legs
breasts
and sass

thank you for the thousandth book
you ever read to me
and lined the walls of my room with
hard bound histories passed down through the family
golden books, encyclopedias, dictionaries

thank you for giving me my grasp of language as a gift

thank you for making kentucky my cradle
and giving me cincinnati as my own personal museum and medical library

thank you for every time your arms have caught me as i was falling

thank you for always having a piano

thank you for your love

thank you, mom

for making me