Gill Horitz
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The Foolishness of Mottos
Desire what God wishes
lived above our fireplace.
What I dared wish for
was a mother who would hug me.
The one I grew up with
was cold and shivery,
even when buttoned up
in a stole.
Flesh she rebuffed,
even her own. But stone
I found warmer; it allowed touch
and heated up.
Without the cranes in the hall,
bronze, eight foot tall,
I would have been lonelier.
They looked at me like a girl
they could talk to.
Years later we met
in a bookshop. Who are you?
my mother asked,
forgetting I was somebody
she never ever wished for.
Note: Desire What God Wishes is the motto of Viola Bankes’ Family, Kingston Lacy, Dorset
Published Orbis 196