Today is a mixed bag

Like so much in life

And I have mixed feelings

A mess of childish resentments and

Spiteful retaliation and love that

I will probably die with.

My mother was like a starlet kidnapped into a homely peasant family

Tall with blood red fingernails.

My father was the homely peasant over-awed

By his captive.

My aunts were jealous and mingy with praise.

I was the daughter

Having inherited flat feet and myopia

From my father

And delusions of grandeur

From my mother

A mixed bag.