mom sat in the car 

next to me 

the heat breathing all over us 

keeping us blanketed 

my girls climbing all over 

our legs our shoulders

the gray seats

she listened intently 

to me 

share my little poems

little tiny snapshots 

of the inside of 

my heart.

I look over and tears 

are streaming down her 

face. 

her voice soft and urgent

“share them”,

she says.

“wrap them in a book

and keep the stories in there” 

“share them”

she says again. 

-the best kind of validation