In honor of Mother's Day

Toucan Sam - 5/8/13
Washing my cereal bowl in the sink
I remember
washing the aged plastic outside
with the smell of campfire hanging thick and heavy
under the spout on the side of a water fountain
the used and dirty water splashing against the sun-warm concrete
cold on my feet
and flip-flops.
I remember
receiving the bowl,
dark cream fading to yellow starting out as
light cream
with toucan sam proudly proclaiming his love for fruit loops
on the cereal box prize
my mother spent five box tops plus $3.99 shipping and handling for
and filled to the brim with conversation hearts for valentine's day.
I was ecstatic.
I remember
taking table scraps out to our dog
and coming back later to find his teeth marks
circling the rim
still carved there
all these years later now.
I didn't mind.
I remember
my mother giving me this bowl again,
a memento of my childhood
to carry into adulthood,
and as I stand here at the sink of a house that I moved into three days ago,
in a kitchen that I scrubbed on my hands and knees like
I've watched my mother do countless times
keeping the house clean for her family in the best way she knew
I remember
my mother
and I realize
how much I love her
and how much she loves me.