Happy Birthday, Mom!

Gabriella Pinto
5 days ago
3 min read

I get to take advantage of Horseshoe’s publication schedule for this piece. This is going to be a special one because today is my mother’s birthday. I thought due to the fate of a new edition falling on March 6, I should choose to take the time to write about the woman who is the reason why I have a passion for writing today.

For holidays in the past, whether it was Mother’s Day or her birthday, I had taken it upon myself to write my mother sentimental poems to go along with whatever gift I got for her that year.

To me, I never found what I said in those poems to be anything truly astounding, but my mother was always moved by them because poetry used to be the way she expressed her feelings as well.

I remember her digging out an old notebook full of her writing from one of the boxes we kept stored in a closet. She’d tell me about how proud she felt when a piece of hers was published in the newspaper.

I kept those footnotes about my mother’s life tucked away in my subconscious as I was trying to navigate my own.

When I felt like my world was upside down, I turned to writing too.

I read something I wrote at my great aunt’s funeral when I was very young. I think that’s when I caught the writing bug. Not only was it therapeutic to get how I was feeling out on paper, but to read it to others and have them relate felt like a verbal hug. My medium transitioned from regular speeches into songs and poetry soon after that.

I would binge watch slam poetry videos as a preteen. It inspired me to write about how I felt in complicated friendships and the way I was feeling about myself. Then, I realized creative writing can be about a community at large. When you feel like the only person in the world who is experiencing a certain feeling, you’ll most likely find out that many people have felt the same way too at one point. Acquiring this collective effervescence is all because of my mother.

She has been with me through it all. She has loved every single version of me, even the ones that I’m too embarrassed to acknowledge. She played the role of both parents for me. She is the first person I call when I’m on my way home from class. She is the first person I text when I need to complain about something or someone. She is my best friend. She is my superhero.

She and I have so much in common. We have the same sense of humor. We both want to have things to do, but when the day an event arrives, we both dread having to go to it. There will be times when the most random event will happen and we’ll both say the exact same thing without even trying to. Sometimes, I’ll be walking to her room to tell her something and I meet her in the hallway because she was walking to my room. It’s like we're twins, but only 35 years apart.

My mother showed me her passion for writing when I was young, and I’d like to think that she passed her gift onto me now. Because of that, the rest of this piece will be something that I wrote for her that was originally a song, but has been reworked into a poem. I got the idea to write this when I heard a lyric from a song by Maddie Zahm called “Mothers & Daughters.” In it, she said “I’m slowly becoming my mother. What an honor.”

This is for you, Mom. Happy birthday. I love you.

For Mom

We’re in the kitchen after dinner.

It’s like I’m ten years old again.

I’m putting on my next performance,

Only for my first best friend.

She’ll join in halfway, then we’ll both say,

The same thing at the same time.

As I get older I can notice,

That her brain is just like mine.

I never have a fear of judgement.

She’s my safety in the storm.