Mother

4 lines, 5 verses.

1st verse - Early times

2nd verse - Teenage years

3rd verse - Adulthood

4th + 5th Verse to wrap up the story.

More of a guideline than rules so go ahead and break it

Mother

They told me you hated me at first
Spent five months insane; institutionalized
At five I was your favourite child, your son
But your sexual abuse, made me guarded

In and out of psychiatric hospitals mentally disturbed
You taught me to always be on my guard for anything
Yet you abandoned me to my fate of torturous mayhem
Father and church violence and sexual abuse: You Knew!

You kept up the pretense that nothing ever happened
Your son now a man yet you protected his and theirs reputations
How was it for you, awake and listening to the screams
Did you have that post coital cigarette; glad it wasn’t you

You let your whole miserable life slip away: No admissions
There was no peace or justice for anyone, least of all me
You were no mother, sadly, you never made the grade
You went to your well deserved grave, a silent witness

Seeing your lifeless body in its casket made me feel nothing
But my hatred of you was now a work completed without compromise
There was no love there, you had extracted and twisted any there was
I hope there is a Hell where mothers get abused like their sons

MOTHER'S SILENCE

Never understood your silence
As we all suffered domestic violence
But, perhaps you, too, were scared
And stepping up you didn’t dare.

I remember about everything you prayed
Promising us better days.
You were grace and he was law
Those better days I never saw.

Due to your silence, I wanted to grow up super-fast
So that I could leave you all in my horrid past
I ruined my life running through my years
Trying to find my own rescue for my fears.

For a good many years I had you as an enemy
It was not until years later, I dropped my enmity
And I saw you for the first time through different eyes
When I understood you were just as helpless as I.

All this time we could’ve been friends
Just when I started to grow close, we came to a sudden end
As your health declined and you closed your eyes
And said to this world, “Goodbye.”

My mothers love

My memories start about the age of five, no favourite ones for me
Your voice never soothed my battered body, all I remember is the pain
Shouting and hitting was your worst vice, you are just as violent as him
You hit me with a piece of green garden hose all the time to keep me in line

By the time I turned 13 I was already in trouble, no one to teach wrong from right
Your love showed me abuse in leaps and bounds, no love shown from you two
Stealing a car, breaking windows for fun, what else could I do I was crying for you
Still your favourite weapon was that dam garden hose, battered and bruised

You killed my step father with a knife, he was an arse hole just like you, fuck you
You went to jail and started smoking weed at least I got a few years break indeed
I was stuck inside my own prison of mental hell from years of your hellish ways
You came out of jail I tried my best to forgive you and I did try so hard o so hard

You died before I could tell you face to face that your hatred was your undoing
My heart never free from the pain and misery that you caused me deep down
Mental trauma that caused my PTSD how could I ever forgive you for what you did
So what I'm trying to say my Mother I'm sorry but I don't forgive you now or ever

The blink of blue eyes
Cherubic in innocence
But a speeding car
Turns my whole world inside out

Me and dear mother
Are fighting over marriage
She wants it arranged
Wants to tuck me in a box

Now I live alone
I long for that little box
It was a neat home
I long for the scent of her

Now I understand
Why she spent her nights with tears
Why she holds me tight
After this unending year

When the darkness came
She swept in, a hurricane
Fought it off with words
Better yet, my mothers' sword

Cut through the shadow like butter.

Mother
brought me into world, your flesh and blood
talking of you is but an emotional flood


first day of school, dropped of at gate
never you did breakfast, case i was late

owe you more than ever could repay
oblivious to my sun adrenaline at play

flew with the times till fatherhood stopped
the precious of times oh how have i dropped

no matter my age,no matter my rage
your calming voice pales any sage

i know you won't wish my wish to come true
i have prayed to Lord that I pass before you!

I put on a playlist of Ave Maria, poured some port and started reading. Such amazing stuff here, i will be forwarding this on to my mom and asking here to pick the one who gets the chicken dinner.

Glass Eye

I wondered what it must be like        
To cry when you have a glass eye.
It was only a passing thought,
You know, the way you do.        
     
Mom suffered a mild stroke last year,        
They said she had just stopped talking.
She couldn't relate how it caused
Her glass eye to loosen in its socket.
It was months before she said it        
And she said it yesterday        
While we dined on Cantonese.
It's then while she sat next to me Mom said
"You know, sweet pea, since the stroke,        
It takes longer to get my mental map up".

Though the stroke left its ravaged effects        
More evident with each passing month,
Mom looked quite lovely when I came
To take her to pick up the prosthetic.
She emerged, beaming, with a new glass eye
That matched her light hazel one perfectly.
I tried not to be obvious
As I watched her delighted reaction,
Laughing in a way I'd never heard;
The girl of Mom's own youth long gone.        
     
At the restaurant after dinner        
Our talk turned to a quiet poignancy.
I shared with her my own struggles,
And she, her thoughts on mortality.
She'd forget, mostly recent things        
Like when she last made peanut brittle
Or was I at the barbecue
(Of course I was, I brought the coleslaw).
Her memories way back from childhood
Were indelible, where we all come from.

I noticed the more Mom talked,
The further back her sentiments.
She always looked like herself,
But yesterday, sitting across from me
In the booth by the street window
With the light from late afternoon.
I saw her as a moving portrait,
Small & frail.  But her smile, and that laugh.
Then Mom spoke of her mother's last days,
Lifting her chin, trying not to cry.        
     
That's what made me wonder        
What it must be like.        
     
   
   

Poet's note:  My mother was blinded in one eye during childhood and had finally received a prosthetic in her senior years.

Congratulations Cindy, it was a very beautiful poem, rhymed it flawlessly
same I felt about my father, again it was too late. never even had a chance to tell him

thank you Beukez for a lovely competition. honoured share the stage with Dani, congrats!

Congratulations Cindy!
Dejure & Dani!  Well done All!