MOTHER'S LAMENT

When they brought you home to me

You were wrapped up in a flag

Your face serene, peaceful at last

But I heard your comrades brag

He bravely went down fighting

But he killed a score and ten

This is war and so he was right

In killing children and women

Their roars and hails rent the air

That overshadowed my pain

Martyr, hero to them you are

But how will I find my son again?

I remember your first angelic smile

That made me forget my pain

God knows, to get you back

I’d bear it over and over again

Those sleepless nights that I spent

Sitting beside your bed

Soothing your hot brows with my hand

Also the copious tears I shed

For two decades my darling boy

You were the only life I knew

Forgetting self, forgetting pain

Watching with joy as you grew

And then before I knew it son

You turned into a man

From your secret world my son

For me you put a total ban

Sleepless nights I lay awake

Wondering where you were

Dreaming what mothers dream

My frustrated heart astir

Hoping you’d come home to me

Despairing that you wouldn’t

Curse take your mission my son

Forced you to do things you shouldn’t

When I look into the mirror now

I see eyes that cannot cry

Though I mourn for my martyred son

I can only hear the mournful sigh

Of other mothers, men and children

Who have lost their loved ones

Some of the innocents you killed

Some mourning mother’s sons

For I know the pain they feel

It’s like mine, it is the same

With anguished lips that cannot speak

They utter their beloved’s name

I was proud of you and still am

But for you it was another game

Though my head is held up high

My heart now droops with shame

With tear dimmed eyes I wonder

Who will hold my hand

With grieving eyes and feeble steps

I walk across this land

Where is my crutch, my boy

What will ever soothe this pain

From your sacrifice, my son

What did your mother gain?

~Sumaitri~

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