From your pockets

You emptied small treasures
Hemostats, angled scissors
Gauze, tape, and bandages
You let me keep
The puffy gold stickers
The shape of hearts
And for my art projects
I used them to write 
I 💛 U
And draw nurses 
Holding thermometers
And gold hearts
Sometimes the women were 
Who
I imagined I’d somrday be
Sometimes they were you
As you were that day
At your graduation
Wearing a nurse’s dress and cap
Instead of a tassel and gown
And white shoes 
The ones with the blue hearts 
That you taught me to polish
To hide the scuffs and scars
One day I would do the same
To my own black boots
I too would wear a uniform and cap
On my graduation day
I hoped to recapture a time
When 
You were so happy 
That you had a daughter
Who
Wanted to be like you, and 
How
I felt so lucky
To have a mommy
Who
Had the power to heal broken hearts