MOTHER

A magic wand,

that feeds, washes, cleans, tends,

worries, scolds, loves, does everything

and bears everything,

unrecognized, taken for granted,

yet loving, protecting

and defending.

She whose tears, when they flow,

they do silently, unnoticed,

She, whose heart returns love even when neglected and

uncared for,

Beaten by fate, abused by men and children,

she persists on the path of a giver,

Her journey of love unending,

She keeps a home together,

And when the birds have flown from the nest,

And a restless spouse

saunters around, smug in his escapades and ego trip,

she guards the house,

alone, with her diseased and decaying body,

she goes on with her duty, her chores and her arthritis,

Sometimes mumbling about negligence,

sometimes crying silently out of helplessness.

and with the burden of feeling unwanted,

her tears nobody to wipe.

With children well settled, and paying visits that double her work,

which she does relentless and happy

She forges a bond with God, in the evening

of her wearied existence,

The world gradually seceding back,

She embarks on another journey, alone,

happy that she has done,

Whatever there was to do.

She is the shade in scorching afternoons

she is the aroma of earth in the first rain,

She is the coziness of a blanket in winter

She is an answer to a fill in the blanks question,
Who bridges the gaps and cements bonds

She is solace in distress,

She is the cool lap to keep the head on and feel safe.

She is the gardener,who nourishes and nurtures the plants

watering them every hour,

and accepts her nonrecognition, working in quietude,

She withdraws gradually, when the time is ripe,
still mothering,

with a few questions and a lot of answers in her eyes

She who gives away her life to others,

with the complete knowledge that,

her children may forget to change the garland on her image

long after she is gone.