Inheritance

I wonder if this is how my mother felt…
sitting in the quiet after everyone else
took what they needed and left.
She was just hoping someone
would appreciate her,
would see the way she held everything together
with her own tired hands.

She once told me,
“You’ll feel the same way
when you have your own kids.”
I didn’t believe her then.
I didn’t understand
how loneliness can settle into your bones
even when your life is full of people.

But now I feel it…
the slow erosion,
the way giving becomes expected,
invisible, automatic.
How you can empty yourself
until you’re nothing but fatigue and habit,
and still, no one notices
what it costs.

And I hate that she was right.
I hate that this ache
is the one thing she managed
to pass down to me…
this quiet desperation
to matter to the people
I’m breaking myself for.

By: Ljiljana Bozickovic

Ljiljana Bozickovic is a writer and mother whose work is shaped by her love of art, music, and the quiet moments that reveal our deepest truths. She shares her creative journey on Instagram @by.ljiljana.