May

A Poem by Lewis Kenny

A poem I wrote about my mother, after I had hugged her.

I hugged my mother today for the first time in God knows how long,
Just to show her that her son still cared and loved her.
She broke down in my arms but couldn't even tell me what was wrong.
She cried, but even the very heavens had turned a blind eye to her mental anguish.

So I later wondered, why did she cry? Why was she sad? What was the root of the pain?
Is it living with the shame of slaving a 54-hour-a-week shift,
just to come home and sift her way to couch and drift off watching her soaps

which instead of giving her a much needed lift,

has now become the dope that suppresses her inner screams.

Which sadly is now the only time of the day she spends chasing her hopes and inner dreams.

Is it the wasting of life on what was promised to be fulfilling and happy

by a man who has since long forgotten all the things which they had once shared in common

in what has now become mere memory of a past life.

The distant acquaintances. The husband and the wife.

And then I thought, could I the guilty one? Have I failed in my job as a son?
For all the things she's asked of me that I could have, would have, should have done
but didn't do, even though I knew that she just wanted a chat,

over a cup of tea while we sat at the ever available, emotionally unstable table
to discuss her frequents with Queen Mab, of times ever Mabel.

But I never put in the distance run, even Mab had now began to run late.
For not one borrowed time, not my sisters, my brothers,
not even her one true love, her soul mate.
So I implore you, embrace her.
Embrace her now, remind her that she's not an entity that serves your existence
but a human being that deserves a life that's not ours to steal,
or unlawfully conceal from this world of which she rightly warrants.
Embrace her, embrace her now!
For she is strong but gentle, argumentative and fair,

But is susceptible to the 'negative other' that sends the soul into disrepair.
So I say to you! Embrace her! Embrace her now!
Hold her close, closer than any other
for she is only given one heart.
And we are only given one mother.