Four and a half hours
in that red SUV
with her
was dreadful.
Tears never stopped
flowing from my eyes
the entire ride there.

How could she leave me
for ten years
and not care?
What gives her the right
to take me from
everything I love?
Why does she think
that the “mother/daughter relationship”
we never had—
never will have—
would then start?

I wanted her dead
for abandoning me
for all those years.
The only people who really cared
wouldn’t be there anymore.
Every green-mile marker
I saw on the interstate
tore me apart,
as the distance furthered
from the place I loved.
My life,
my soul,
and my being was split into two worlds
as I faced the reality—
There was no going back.