For My Foster Sister (About Growing Up With Mom Drunk) Poem by Linda Racaniello

We used to run through the sprinkler
we double jumped & skipped rope
we danced along to the radio
our lives were filled with hope

then something made her dad leave
and soon her mom was always drunk
she didn't have clean clothes to wear
she often felt like a dirty punk

she didn't have anyone to talk to
and the shades were always pulled tight
her mom didn't want any noise
and hated when she turned on the light

she no longer made her lunch
and asleep when she came home
she wore a ratty bathrobe
and never used a comb

it's a good thing the house was paid for
so she never had to sleep in the street
but if she didn't cash in coke bottles
she would never have anything to eat

nobody ever called the cops
they lived out towards the woods
she learned how to steal real well
and that's how she brought home goods

Mom used her welfare money
to buy her favorite drink
she ate all her leftovers
and put dishes in the sink

She didn't want a foster family
but was too scared not to tell
the day she found her on the floor
she told me her mom wasn't well

But instead of speaking out
She left home that day
she slept under the railway pass
got to school, ran all the way

We don't know who called the cops
but they cornered her in the hall
took her to the counselors office
where she stood against the wall

They told her - she had to move
in with a foster family
She didn't want to leave her mom
but is how it was to be

She cried at the funeral
for a mom who wasn't there
and moved around a lot after that
her mom's death too much to bear

She graduated college
just the other day
that foster family that took her in
we helped her make her own way

She never thought she'd love again
after her mom was gone
but we've learned a lot since then
and we know her mom was wrong

When her dad left he took her pride
and she lost all control
she couldn't raise her by herself
with booze she drowned her soul

We've been to her grave
and planted a flower cover
cause even though she was a drunk
she still her mother