She remembers everything like a mother would:
a scraped knee, pancakes at dawn, a rare blood type. 
In order to be inspired, she must be understood. 

As tall as a Titan but softer than driftwood,
she found love in a nephew who lived up to the playboy hype.
In order to be inspired, she must be understood. 

After taking Zeus for nine nights, she welcomed motherhood. 
Each muse plucked from her belly like a fruit still unripe,
She remembers everything like a mother would:

choir practice, astronomy club, a play as Robin Hood,
each daughter moved beyond home, leaving tears to wipe. 
In order to be inspired, she must be understood. 

She moved to the underworld, wore green where she stood,
keeping track of souls who drank from Lethe with a single swipe.
She remembers everything like a mother would:

each daughter is a legacy, work done for the better good
yet artists and lovers don’t thank her; she’s smoke in a proverbial pipe. 
But Mnemosyne remembers everything like a mother would,
and in order to be inspired, she must be understood. 

[Evelyn Deshane has appeared in Plenitude Magazine, The Rusty Toque, and is forthcoming in Tesseracts 19: Superhero Universe. Their chapbook, Mythology, was released in 2015 with The Steel Chisel. Evelyn (pron. Eve-a-lyn) received an MA from Trent University and currently studying for PhD at Waterloo University. Visit evedeshane.wordpress.com for more details.]