MAMA. The maker and destroyers of destinies and worlds. -JBHarris
Mothers On Mother’s Day
If I tell you happy Mother’s Day,
it means I see you sis.
It means I see you
doing is best you can
as long as you can,
and sometimes you do the can
even when you don’t know
where the rest will come from.
When I tell you
Happy Mother’s Day,
that means I believe in you,
that I want the best for you,
know that there is no one quite like you.
If I tell you Happy Mother’s Day,
that means I see all
you will become,
all that you’ve had to overcome,
even when no one
would come to you
when you needed them.
Even in those darkest times,
when you wish
the love of a mother was yours —
you can share mine.
When you didn’t see
your way clear,
when the world gave you
dark when all you needed
was light —
and you persisted.
Through rain and sleet and snow, thunderbolts
lightning crashes,
and its flashes,
taking everything from you.
And you persisted.
As godmother,
as foster mother,
Adopted mother
Bonus moms
as a sister from another mister—
You are the being essential as
part of a village.
Seeing the children in your world
as those who could never leave it,
leaving your love in their bones.
You see, no mother works alone.
You are needed and necessary,
And necessary to be needed.
And in the need,
in the try,
you still manage
to wipe tears from your own eyes, to
plant trees that you may never feel the shade from.
But all eat the fruit thereof.
Fighting wars that were yours never to be won.
Through stress,
Strife, causalities,
The skies burning—
Or falling!—
And the 10,000 falling
By your right side
And stride forward.
Through grief and loss, you still are called mother.
The repairing,
Generational curse breaking
through the apprehension,
even through sometimes
active addiction,
someone called you: MAMA.
Through trauma, you showed up…
And even through that
As the children who survived
and remain forgive you
when you couldn’t do anything…but give up.
Happy Mother’s Day
is complicated
because that’s the title
even if you die—
no one will ever take away.
Or replace.
-JBHarris, Mother’s Day 2024