Welcome to Labrys, your student-run art and literature collective of Smith College.

Mommy grows cilantro in her window box
In this chipped seaweed painted house,
A matchbox of a house,
And Mommy burns herself with the oil popping
In the pot.

Mommy, if I could take you back
To the house you were born in,
Before the hurting came
I would.

Mommy, if I could teach you
That you deserve more
Than this world gave you,
I would.

Mommy, if I could bring you with me
In my college classrooms,
With carpeted floor and fluorescent lights,
I would
If only to show you that everything
I needed to be here
You already gave me.

I would heal you in all the
Places this world hurt you
The only way I knew how,
The way you taught me,
With hot coffee and milk
And enough patience
To put a bandaid on the broken
Edges of bone
You have carried with you
Since you were a girl,
With braids cut short.