A Poem for a Menopause Mama

By: Red Hot Mamas

Published: July 13, 2010

Submitted by Debra Lewis, Conyers, GA

It was a typical day at work, the usual, trying to get as many women that walked by to come sit in my chair and let me make them beautiful!! I love my job, I get to play with makeup all day and change my lipstick as many times as I want (in between customers of course).

It was rather slow, so me and fellow beauty consultants were talking about our mood swings, food, flashes, you know, the usual. Oh, yes, my story…every afternoon I can expect the phone to ring at 4:30 and today was no exception.

Jo, my sweet 12 year old excitedly tells me of a project she is working on, poems and guess what, she wrote one about me, her mama!! Out of the telephone comes this poem and let me tell you, I squealed like a pig, and almost fell out on the floor!

Trying to be graceful in front of the world, I stood there listening to a poem where my baby girl had captured the real me, the naked 48 year old retired flight attendant from Easter Airlines, beauty advisor, trying her best by putting on a smile, but, secretly hating getting and looking old!! This is written exactly as JoJo Lewis wrote it (I am having the original framed) on February 26, 2007. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, I was shocked by the “snake part”, but the truth is the truth!

My mom is a piece of paper
Her emotions fly everywhere
They’re flimsy
They get ripped easily
They go up and down
High and low
She can become a chameleon how she changes her mood
She’s always in disguise
Being a deer
Sweet as can be
Being a snake
Frightening as you can see
My mom is a piece of paper that can be made into a
Blossoming flower.