Only a Mother's Love

stranded in space with grunting sorrow
trapped in a desert sand with a cold head
bobbing-back-and-front, only a Mother's love
can be an island somewhere in life's ocean
that’s vast and wide and like a beacon of light
shine Faith and Truth and Prayer
into the changing scenes of the night

in the hour between assault and a kiss
where the art of losing isn’t hard to master
only a Mother's love shiny and sparkly
can understand the pit of debris in the tears
she can soothe the nightmares in disappointments
and calm all the fears in the fierce cave
bringing to the door of flights a nice Hope

there are times when only a Mother's love
in the loss of sunlight on cloudy noontime
can understand the sorrow in the songbird’s rose
and be the peaceful, quiet shelter
that keeps a pilot safe from the wind, from the rain
to separate courage from cowardice when tears refuse to dry

there are times when only a Mother's love
can share the joy in the song of despair
in the kingly voice of the child left in a storm
when we girdle sorrow, clung dreams
stun the years for shadows to draw back
and from her memory's treasury she raises a song

there are times when only a Mother's faith
can contain a soul in the earth of drunken island
take eye in to inspire in the heart confidence
in the cemetery of kisses and pecking of birds
even if shattered like a jar by walls of shadows

looking back beyond lines of desires
did this heart find the lost discoverer
in the moist hour desiring to raise a song
to a Mother to still the fire in her womb
with infinite tenderness that before like a rainbow
faded into evening sky where it will rest
in grief and ruins in thirst and hunger for love

if I have forgotten the cross of your arms
if I have forgotten the luckless singer by the cradle
if I have forgotten the Door to the Frame
will heaven not fasten night to my timetables
let me fill the air with her flowered songs
before black birds migrate towards here