i kept telling my mother to look for men with keys.
keys to open the cage around her heart
that even i have failed to open.
she told me that she'd never fall in love again,
not after my father who left her alone crying
and breaking like the tide.
he was probably a part of the problem.
but when she did end up falling in love again,
it did not end well.
he was a tyrant, a mess of a human being.
he was the thing that reminded me why
hurricanes were named after people.
the wind was roaring at the high end of the cliff
when she fell from it.
i warned her.
i warned her
not to fall in love
with padlock men.