They’d say “you look like your father but I wonder what you got from your mother”

I’d wonder too

My other mother

Our resemblance as detached as our relationship

My Parent’s separated when I was young so I never got to know her

My dad remarried and life went on

But when a parent leaves they don’t disappear

My other mother was still somewhere out there

I would look at photos of us together

Frustrated, I’d tear them to shreds

Dig deep

The memories would resurface right?

How could I forget her?

How could I forget us?

The way she always smelled clean like she’d just bathed

Or the way she laugh at me like I was the funniest person in the room

How she’d look at me with pain in her eyes

Like she was sad she couldn’t protect me from the world

And how she made me feel like I was worth something

That was my mother

But in every photo she’s merely a stranger

Like someone I would walk past on the street

Never taking a second glance back

Once everything to me

Now, Nothing

My other mother