Motherhard

It's hard to survive motherhood.

Sand tumbles through the glass

A testament of her will

Each task before her uses grains

And after sleep refills.

But, what if she is tired?

And the sand is not enough?

Slips between her fingers.

Sometimes the days are tough.

A grain here for a cup of milk

Two more for cleaning spills

Fifteen for cooking dinner

Which tests her many skills.

More for all the moments 

When she is badly needed

But what to do when sand runs out?

Thier cries can't go unheeded.

She exists, an empty glass

Just waiting for refilling

Some nights sleep eludes her

(But kids are so fulfilling!)

She knows it will be worth it

In the end when all is well

But she's the one who birthed it

And invited this carousel.

Author's Note

A nod to the occasional despondency a mother feels when it all just gets to be too much.

Reviews

[R.E. Ray]

Perhaps this is why the hourglass is tightly sealed... so the sand is never gone? Seems you've managed to flip those glass bowls when the grains need to run the opposite direction. I can only comment as an observer, though I watched this act first hand in my home. A creative way to capture the "ride" you know as motherhood.

[Pete]

i know the feeling. i remember well the sleepless nights especially when they were sick and then going to work the next day like a zombie. is well worth it though - no greater joy than watching them grow up and just loving them no matter ... :)

[Chris]

strange how the daydreams never quite covered ...the "too much"es - isn't it...

[Paul Bell]

Spot on, no nine to five job for mothers.
Even, when they grow up poor mother still frowns.

[Planet x]

yes , so beautiful and true
I would say even what parents feels sometimes , although its more the mom

[Eilis]

I can remember when my kids were under three how grateful (temporarily sane) I felt if I was able to clean the kitchen. Cooking dinner was like a repeat nightmare where every time I got my hands deep in some mucky thing someone needed to be rescued or held.

Life with little ones is a challenge. I love the idea here of grains of sand representing the amount of strength or energy or patience a person has. It allows for the finiteness of being. Mothers are just people. People who are in the midst of an intense stretch of time. That time is full of joys but also challenges. And mothers are not inherently saints.

I feel this mother’s pain. In the young years it feels like time and challenge concentrated sometimes. But the great thing is things just keep getting easier.

I guess it’s like applying to a job you have no experience with and getting it. You end up learning the ropes under fire, and perhaps that makes you stronger in the end. The joys (triumphs) give you a boost of fuel to keep moving forward. Great poem.

[Kay]

I love your choice to title this "Motherhard", it's a real tribute to mothers. It's great the way you break down how each individual activity can suck out varying grains of energy and the total amount IS limited. She's human after all. But refilling herself might not happen as fast as she is depleted. We expect mothers to have an unconditional love for their children, but giving with an expectation of immortal feeling is not something small to overlook. As you say, it "test her many skills" constantly until the end of her life, and "what to do when sand runs out?" which leaves her to be "an empty glass". It's a cycle of pouring oneself out from the time she becomes pregnant, something that's exclusive to a mother's kind of love.

[Malise Haligree]

I lived this poem for two weeks, feeling like more and more of my grains were being sucked away until I was just so, so tired that I felt like this was an impossible job. I can't even begin to understand how working mothers manage to do all they do. I stay at home!

[Kay]

It's a tricky thing for sure, how to give so much from yourself and still have enough left to deal with the rest of life. Talk about the ultimate juggling act! But I think it's amazing how all that effort secures precious memories for those children in the future.. even though it can feel like "mission impossible" without Tom Cruise there to save the day haha. Hope you got to catch up on some rest after!

[Malise Haligree]

I did, they finally started sleeping more than a few hours at a time ^_^