Mother, if a picture can shout volumes
I would capture you next to that rose
The mask of steel you wore
Just so we wouldn’t see you despairing
The mask of steel you wore
To see us smile
To see you smile………
Mother, I can write and write but words
Can never describe your bravery
Your motherly instincts, with which you cared for us
Protected us, only another mother would know….no not I
A mother forced…to flee her home………by men she saw as her brothers
I don’t know how it feels like….to stare up a barrel of a gun……….with you brother holding the trigger………….and pray to Allah I never do.
We moved…………
To dwell among……brothers bonded together only by this prayer mat
Whom, unknowingly harbour hatred to this thing called melanin
I will never know…no not I
Then.........I remember ……we moved.
To a place…..to which people would lose an arm for………..
Walking onto tarmac and cement
A far cry from the grass and earth….which enter laced your feet.
But things changed………..proofed that the devil still existed.
Now here, you are
With four children to nurture
In a 3 bedroom council house,
In which its walls speak English,
A language you don’t understand,
A far cry, from your mother tongue with which poetry
was consistent
Mother, if a picture can shout volumes
I would capture you next to that rose
……strong beauty,
Mother, I’m glad……Allah chose you as my mother…
Hawo Sayyid
Copyright © 2011
*I was heavily inspired by Poet Warsan Shire poem mother.
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