Mother's Day

I thought this appropriate for my first offering....
It's called 'Mother's Day'

Mother’s Day

It wasn’t in the poverty

Of having to burn your shoes

To keep your children warm -

Nor in damp walls – or

Peeling wallpaper.

It wasn’t in the cutting-cutting

Draft through cracked windows –

Under warped doors -

The hunger pains

Or red runny nose’s.

It was witnessing your

River of sad silent tears

As you tried to protect me

In that moment our eyes

Met – in a before language -

Look.

It’s the desperate aching

That poverty feeds:

When you starve yourself

For others

Cutting slices of bread

Thin enough for seven.

You thought you gave us

Nothing - when you gave us everything:

Love.

Nursery rhymes from heart -

Shown us another world in

Misty drawings

Across cracked window panes.

Two hours before you died

Aged eighty two – much reduced -

Lying there so very small -

I whispered to you:

“The Owl and the Pussy Cat went-

To Sea in a beautiful.....”

And a single tear – a

Single tear - tracked down your

Cheek. Your last tear

And I kissed it away

Replacing it with one of my

Own.

Oh Mam, you gave me

Everything -

The heart of a Lion -

You gave me a Spirit to soar

Through the skies

Like an Eagle

You gave me soul

Mam

You gave me

Everything

And later as they take

What’s left away I

Shudder knowing

That you’ll live on….

Live on in me -

As we walk away

Together.