Song For My Mother Lyrics - Dean Friedman

By dean friedman 

In the hollow of your arms, snuggled up all safe and warn, 

You used to tell me tales of unicorns and kings. 

But how could I comprehend all the things you told me then 

Of your madness and your struggling? 

And my mind would swim in fantasies, like a piece of driftwood in the sea. 

I had no touchstone for reality. you were my reality. 

Like a dark and unlit room or the far side of the moon, 

Your insanity spoke emptiness and fear. 

And no matter how I tried, how I questioned and I pried, 

I just could not penetrate that thin veneer. 

And I know you tried to comfort me, to soothe and reassure me. 

But then your strength would always fail and in it's place a silken veil. 

Like a dried and wrinkled prune, a deflated toy balloon, 

I cam home and found you strewn across the floor. 

And as they lay you on your bed I heard you say, 

"if I a dead, how come it just keeps on hurting more and more? " 

And you left me in the early spring. all they said was, "mommy's resting." 

And how was I to know, so young, it wasn't something I had done? 

So please try and understand, I will love you as I can. 

I do not blame you; you're not guilty. 

But still there's no way to describe the relief I finally found 

Upon learning it was you, and not me, that was crazy.