Meager Leavings - Sister Crayon

Meager leavings,

I was so afraid

Of the constant edge that my mother gave

I inherit it

From her pale, white face

Rough from disappointment and a cold hard age

Oh, the things that she has seen

And because of it, so have I

With her own two eyes

Which are now sadly mine

I hold her frustration in my arms, in my chest

Because I’ll never fully know her, I can never rest.

Stranger that birthed me,

Leave me unnerving.

Swallow my years as well as this anger,

Where does the time go?

I was a child once

It doesn’t scare me, us looking back

‘cause the only truth I’ve known is from my past

Our lonely father

Wonder where he’s at

Sometimes, I’ve wrung my hands in prayer

It’s killed the effect

Oh, how you cling to your psalms

Clutched in your palms

I cry in near prayer

To pronounce your tragic prose

To confuse faith with labor is to let your kill linger

Stranger that birthed me

Leave me unnerving

Swallow my years as well as this anger

Where does the time go?

I was a child once

It doesn’t scare me,

Us looking back.

Stranger that birthed me, leave me.