Letter To My Mother

Realizing a fresh life growing inside, What thoughts coursed through your mind, I still wonder, oh dear my mom. Did you gleefully welcome the news? Or respond to it with a violent shock? So sure, right away after your fourth baby With four little kids still needing care Like chicks in a coop, carrying once again, Might not have been in your scheme of things. Thus, at a time when you expected it the least, Could you beckon the new life growing inside, With a pleasant nod of head in assent Or with a suppressed moan of fright, I wonder! When from nausea you started to suffer And threw up each time when you ate, Did you curse your man in silence? Or grow mad with your children and your fate? Slogging through those weary days With no respite from your routine chores Did you get enough rest or care? Or did you languish without a hand to assist? Seeing you with an extended waistline Did some nosey neighbors behind your back, Teasingly utter in hushed whispers ‘Oh, she has done it again!’ Suddenly one day when the earthquake began, In mild tremors first, then gaining in force Did you scream mad or cry aloud? Or did you endure the pain in austere silence? Then abruptly when I showed myself up, Did you feel any remorse over my sex? And see me as another liability, Added up to the girls already in line! No, I am sure you must have cuddled me close, And locked me in the warmth of your bosom, For you were such a rare gift sent from heaven A mother nonpareil in self-effacing love. Mother, my life is so much intertwined to you, With an inalienable bond that tightly binds A connection that began even before birth A bond that passed through the umbilical cord As I swam in the warmth of your amniotic fluid Mom, you keep shining in me like a beacon, And your glow shall never die out, leading me, Ever through the shoals and storms of life! April.20.2023 ~ Placed First~ Letter to My Mother Poetry Contest Sponsor- Anoucheka Gangabissoon This poem, I thought would be interesting to many of you to have an idea of the cultural difference from country to country and to show how life was in the fifties and sixties for an average woman living in an Indian village. Being a wife and mother, life was hardly easy for a woman in a patriarchal set up during the fifties and sixties. Childbearing was a routine affair and taking care of the children with none to help was her lot. Men who were the sole bread winners would be away at their place of work…! Even if at home, they hardly lend a helping hand. Girls were always marginalized and looked upon as a liability as they could be sent away in marriage only by giving huge amounts as dowry! Thank God, now things have changed and most of the women are employed and earning members!