Not Enough Love

By Mi’Netra Gobernado

She watches her son apply the peachy rouge

to the apples of his rosy cheeks, his balance

impressive for someone who has and would

never be able to wear wedges often.

As he reaches for the tube of Maybelline

from the drawers of her mahogany vanity,

her own mascara begins to run

because if they were caught playing pretend,

listening to Freddie Mercury, and “the like”

by his father, whom he was born to love,

that would be the wood used for their caskets.

He twists the wand to the left, its sharpness

is nothing short of a knife to her

because she knows that a mother’s love

is not enough to protect her son

from this world of hate.

Mi’Netra Gobernado is a writer who specializes in poetry. She is the president of her school’s writing club and has published works, such as but not limited to “I’ll Give You the Sun,” as well as written works of academia, such as “Veils: Liminal Spaces of Blackness With or Without the White Gaze.” She has been featured in multiple literary magazines across her school, including the retired “The Talon.”