Mother

by A.E. Bayne

Mother is a stuffed dumpling
who knows brown welts don't swell.
Broad-backed with buckled feet,
she finds heart in each beat.

Mother jumps rainbows and combs bats from the rafters.
She is bad when the snow bites.
Mother crisses crosses and such;
she heaps on a lot of heavy.
Her cost is in pennies;
she pays in quarters.
Her roses in crochet double valentines.