my mom sends me a package for valentine's day, there is a card with a girl that looks not unlike me. she has a plaid blouse tucked into short jeans, she has black glasses and she is leaning against an old car in the snow. her arms are crossed. it says her name is leona. i wonder if leona is someone's mother, if she is dead.

my mom sent me a tin of pinhead irish oatmeal. it is a secret message, she is saying she would sprinkle the brown sugar and mix the butter in herself if she was here.

she sent me a package of heart shaped peeps. she remembers every subtle thing that i mention that i like. she clips articles about sleater-kinney and sends them to me, they are so "mom-like" because she rips them out and part of the words on the right side are missing. i do that too. not precise, but trying very hard. she looks for paintings of bullfighters and old aprons and she sends me two small packages of red rickrack at a time.

she sends me pictures of people from the renaissance and from the 40s that she thinks look like me.

her writing is very small and studied and she always puts "petite mamam" on the return address.