Just Call me Tuey
by Kieryn J McCann
I'm not mom
but when all your friends have moms who look like me...
you are so very smart and clever
the way you puzzle out the world
and how all our pieces fit together,
I can see why you'd think that I am.
I get it
you only have so many boxes to filter your world through
dalmatians and dairy cows
are both labeled "dog"
for a little bit.
It breaks my heart to tell you
“you don't have a mom”
I worry you wouldn't understand
not yet
I worry that will hurt…
…too much
…too young
fester a wound…
…too deep
that when you can understand
it doesn't matter
.
.
.
But you don't have a mom.
And I did that on purpose.
You have love and comfort.
I kiss your owies,
I snuggle away the nightmares,
I know your favorite foods and have them ready before you ask.
When you're tired your feet still walk their way home into my ribs
Kieryn McCann
Kieryn (per/thons) grew up in the greater Kansas City metro before moving to a rural town about an hour outside of Wichita, Kansas. Thons full-time job is Primary Onboarding Specialist to per one New Human still in Training, colloquially known as parenting. In the time thon manages to carve out for perself, Kieryn can be found hanging out in various queer haunts in South Central Kansas molding dreams into reality with other community builders. As a neurodivergent, Kieryn writes according to per sense of synesthesia and how the words “taste” and “feel” in per mouth as if they were food. This lends itself to a style rich with alliteration and unconventional rhyming schemes.