Mom

by Randall Rogers

I was the ugliest baby in the maternity
ward, mom told me,
all the nurses made a point of crinkling their faces
in distaste when looking at me
and commenting
on how ugly a baby I was,
she said.
Too, she said growing older
hadn’t been kind to my aesthetic
appearance also, and, “to be honest” she confided in me,
I was an unplanned unwanted baby.
I guess that’s why I got the cheap urn
for her when she died
and I sprinkled her remains
in dirty gas station
toilets
all over this great land
America.