epiphyte

i am your mother’s favorite flower

not quite a parasite 

but a codependency

nurtured from unrelated blood

fertilized by love of her womb

that seemed to have missed you  

you would never have diagnosed

my limbless figure 

if you spotted me in convenience stores

propagated below my belt

see my spine arch over pot

an illusion of strength

hallucinates my frictionless stance

your mother weeps for you while

i collect her rain with sympathy

soaked leaves seep into my soil

it is her i wish to grow toward

but it is you

whom I must wrap around to reach her

fuschia stains her cheeks pink

while you pluck me limb from limb

to gift her a wilting timebomb

you, her fertilized seed 

shows no resemblance

to the woman who watered me

i wish to be orchid 

yet i am orphaned from this earth

by your son’s greedy hands

drained defiled deflowered 

to die on your flowerbed

as a connection that was never mine to claim