Asking for a Mother

Can I share some space at your table?
Where you create, contemplate
the very nuts and bolts and sparks that make you, you.
Can you teach me?
How to ask, how to look, how to chew
on mouthfuls of reality without choking.
Can you love me?
Only as much as you're supposed to,
Not an ounce less and not a hair more
Than any person should need another person,
Especially a child