Things I keep from my mother

Kerry Hammerton

When I lost my virginity, who with;

how that nice boy, the one she liked,

wasn't nice behind closed doors; and other things

I couldn't even tell my friends.

When I look at my hands

I see her ageing hands. Her drawn-in lips

remind me of her mother's aged lips –

but these are things I do not tell her.

There is much my mother doesn't know –

how many lovers I've had;

why I live so far away from home;

how often despair rises in me.

(published in Secret Keeper. Modjaji Books. 2018)

Featured at the Red Wheelbarrow on 10 February 2022