Poetry
Tears of a Mother
A Trilogy, Written in the Wake of 9/11
I. A Mother Weeps
With hungry eyes and fearful glance Her child squats with dirty feet in crumbling doorways - Wonders why angry men Burn flags, feed each other bullets. Nurtured in ignorance, fed on hate He plays at dangerous games And shouts, “I am a man!” No food today, and yet His belly’s rounded, full of faith And dynamite. A mother weeps.
II. A Daughter Comes of Age
At half past six, she sits alone, With a week-old crust of tadig and a pan of rusty, dusty water and the memory of angry words - words they never read from the Koran.
At seven, she crawls inside The hated veil, Shroud of mystery, Mother’s womb, Just to see what it feels like, To be a woman.
At half past eight, she brushes off the flies. Looks into the lifeless eyes of the one who gave her birth. To be a woman? She knows now, what Death feels like.
III. Growing Up: Just Pennies a Day
“Clean your plate, or it’ll rain! Don’t you know there are children starving in Africa?” Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, Philadelphia, Miami, Australia, Los Angeles, New York… You knew. You knew I wanted to scrape clean my plate, scrape clean my soul, tie it all up with brown twine, mail it off, care of Unicef… If they’re so hungry, maybe they’d appreciate cold liver and onions.
But I am saved, for just 42 cents — pennies — a day, courtesy of the land waaaaay over there, where children are fed, palaces raised - and absolution is bought For the price of your morning coffee!
This is Day #11 of the 30-Day Writing Challenge by Nancy Blackman for Refresh the Soul. Previous days’ posts:
- A Tiny Note from the Universe. When you find one, it’s a treasure
- These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
- A Most Meaningful Year. First, declare September 1 the Start of…
- When It Rains, It Pours. What I’m NOT grateful for is mosquitoes
- One Deadline that Doesn’t Drive Me
- This is Beauty. My subjective definition in exactly 150…
- There Are Worse Things I Could Do
- Life’s Little Soundtrack. These are a few of my favorite songs
- What’s in a Name?
Holly Jahangiri is the author of Trockle ; A Puppy, Not a Guppy; and A New Leaf for Lyle. She draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young at heart. Visit her website at jahangiri.us and subscribe to her newsletter at https://hollyjahangiri.substack.com/