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sometimes these things can
make a mess.
I nod
feeling a knot
growing in my gut.
Just make sure
you’re not sacrificing your own needs
for someone else’s dreams, Junie,
Mama Alice continues
her voice softer and somehow
distant.
I get the feeling we’re not
talking about me anymore.
Can I ask you something?
I say after a beat.
Always.
When you and Mom
met
was it hard
to open up to her
at first?
After the way you grew up?
Hmmm, Mama Alice says
mulling over my question for a minute.
Mama Alice spent her teenage years with her aunt
her mother’s older sister.
Her mother and father kicked her out at age fourteen
for being queer.
She was even homeless for a little bit.
I forget sometimes
