A good mother shows no weakness.

When you left, a guiltless, cowering creature was born. Not one trace of my immigrant misery stained your new skin.

I heard you married a handyman and moved to Yonkers.

The pawnbroker gave me a Benjamin for the gold earrings I never gave you.

Gessy Alvarez is founding editor of the literary website Digging Through the Fat: ripping out the heart. Her prose has appeared in Entropy Magazine, Extract(s): Daily Dose of Lit, Literary Orphans, Pank, and other publications.