Making cookies with this child

I love as if my own

And while we’re busy having fun

He slips and calls me “Mom”

 

I act as if I didn’t hear

Or that he didn’t say it

I turn away and wash a bowl

So my tears will not betray it

 

The one word that my heart longs most

To hear, well, it just did

But it only brings up memories

That would be best left hid

 

And so I blink away the tears

That would only just confuse him

He’d want to know, and ask me “Why?”

And I never can refuse him

 

I answer questions all day long

Like why the sky is blue

Where does the sun go after dark

Do dogs have belly buttons too?

 

But how could I tell this sweet child

That sometimes life’s not fair

That we don’t always get our wish

No matter how we care

 

So I will let him think for just

A little while yet

That life is rosy, fair and sweet

And your fondest wish, you get.