Author’s-Note:
Every month I’ll be conducting a Poetic-Challenge, challenging various poets, whom I personally know/interact with, just for the sake of sharpening/improving my own poetry, general-goodwill, respect for my fellow “Brethren of the Paper & Pen”, and to just see who from among us has the best “Poetry-Skillz”…Every month, I’ll be picking a brand-new Poetic-Challenger, via Facebook/Twitter, to compete with. This month, it’s Annam Choudhry. Next month, it could very well be anyone of you. So, just be prepared, with some fresh-rhymes.
Topic: Mothers
Gareth Bryant
Mother are like no Others:
She carried you inside her womb…
…Inside them, we grew to bloom.
In Arabic, Womb means Protection…
…From disease, as well as infection.
We were evolved, developed inside her, for 9-months…
…Though we occupied her space, she didn’t care much.
That’s how much she really loved you…
…The mark of commitment that’s true.
When we came into the Mundane, they dried our tears…
…She rocked us to sleep, calmed our freights and fears.
She taught you how to spell, read and write…
…She taught you how to dress and be polite.
While our Fathers taught us about toughness, they taught, showed, us to love…
…When our peers encourage us to seek vengeance, they teach us to forgive.
Fed you from her plate, starved herself, so that you would have the lion’s share…
…But, when they need us, to help them, we cast them aside & we don’t even care.
Our mothers kept us in their bodies, for almost a whole year…
…The protected us, but, now, we fill their hearts with much fear.
We have the audacity to raise our voices, when they tell us something that we don’t like…
…And, as mothers do, they always are willing to do for us, like nothing happened, so nice.
When Fathers die, or run away, it’s the Mothers who stay the course, and hold things down, without any such complaint…
…This is why Ummah, meaning Society, is from the word Umm, which means Mother; their contributions to our lives great.
Gareth Bryant/2014
Annam Choudhry
A Mother’s Love:
A void that cannot be filled with anything other than Allah
Because when her soul has departed from her body,
There will be no one on the face of this Earth
Who could love you like she did.
Accept you like she did.
Hold, mold, break, shake,
Make you like she did–a mother’s love.
Her body made you, flesh and bones, only by His Will
And no matter how many times you would break the fragile flesh of her heart
The shattered pieces would come together, a perpetual miracle
Because of the Mercy and love placed in it from Allah
A mother’s love.
When you entered the house late at night
Wiped your feet all over your mother’s rights,
Know that it was her love for you that wouldn’t let her go to sleep
And her love for you that gave her grief
And her love for you that kept her pleading to Allah
To protect you from harm’s way, to guide you,
To make firm, in Him, your belief.
A mother’s love.
She enjoyed your childhood for a fleeting moment
Working to feed you, check by check, time stolen
Diapers, Gerber, Similac;
Tears and wailing, she often thinks back.
Though times were harder, it was much sweeter
Because her baby couldn’t disrespect her
But you could as a teenager
With your oppressive behavior
She didn’t know her baby would become her slave master–
Sign of the times. But even when time’s a changin,
What remains the same is
A mother’s love.
Don’t abuse her, ‘cause one day you’ll lose her
Place yourself in the future
Nothing will bring back your mother,
your mother,
your mother.
So love her.
Nothing will bring back her love.
Annam Choudhry/2014
