mother

[cjchaffin]

*i'd like some help cleaning this up.
it feels awfully wordy and overly descriptive to me
but i need to step away from it for a bit.
also, i'm not sure about the em dashes...do they work or not?
thanks in advance!*

Hey CJ. Based on your preface I'm just gonna go through and see what I see.

I used to think of her
as being larger than life— too cliche for you. I think the dash is fine although it could as easily be a semicolon (I think)
beautiful in her righteous anger,might not need "her" again
frightening with her quiet, resounding stares—this one I like as a dash since the sentence continues into the next stanza.
a warm, comforting shell

filled with cool, steely resolve.steely cool maybe?
She was so many different adjectivesperhaps wordy here. "She was so many different" --- I won't make a specific suggestion, but you need to find your word for "so many different".
and I could fill pages describing her.
Now she is simply small and fragile,do you need "simply"?
asleep on the couch with a thin afghan.

She naps in the heat of the day
and dreams of her own mother.I think I see why you need the word "own" here. Maybe
She smiles with her eyes closed
as I pull the blanket over bony shoulders,Mostly me here, but I want the comma after shoulders to be an "and". Sound it out-see how you feel.
push silver hair behind her ear.

Hope some of that helps. Went into this one blind as per your being stuck. Good luck with it. I like it. - Paul

thanks Paul, that was helpful indeed. gracias.