Not a Variable

My mother, a constant
not a, b, or c, just m

predictable, as with buoyancy,
gravity, a number,

a number used in differentiation,
integration – our letters across water,

the pen and paper glue, our ebb, and flow,
tides always guided by a moon,

she in England, we in Ireland
she at work, we in boarding school

held in her butterfly net,
and even when we grew

she pulled us in if needed,
whooshed us off when right.

Published in Mom Egg Review, April 2019