We Are Not Our Mothers

We do not bite our tongues into blood like they did.

We do not shrink ourselves

to make room for a man’s brittle love,

do not bend until we break.

We love, but we do not surrender to it.

We stay, but only when it is safe to do so.

We are not our mothers.

But sometimes,

when the light hits it just right,

we see them in the mirror,

and we wonder

if they ever wanted to be us instead.