10 May 2016

her blue body

I didn't go for mother's day stuff - we lived in a commune, it was the 1980s, my child was introduced to other things about life, we were serious hippy rebels.
There are vague childhood memories (mine) of colouring cards for my mother but that must have been before I went to school. And the teenager I was then would not be seen dead with a mother's day memento or a bouquet. And thankfully, my mother did not like the idea either. But I only found out this week that it was not a nazi thing after all, this day to idolize women as mothers. See what I mean, my teenage anger etc.
Still, my child called on Sunday - by total coincidence, of course. 

Anyway, in the words of Alice Walker:


We have a beautiful
mother
Her hills
are buffaloes
Her buffaloes
hills.

We have a beautiful
mother
Her oceans
are wombs
Her wombs
oceans.

We have a beautiful
mother
Her teeth
the white stones
at the edge
of the water
the summer
grasses
her plentiful
hair.

We have a beautiful
mother
Her green lap
immense
Her brown embrace
eternal
Her blue body
everything we know.

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

Beautiful poem. And perfect for some of us.

JO said...

Lovely poem. And I, too, hate the Mothers Day baloney. Let's me extra nice to our mothers for one day in the year, to make sure they carry on doing the washing up the rest of the time!

Anonymous said...

Love this poem.

am said...

Her blue body. No wonder I am drawn to the ocean and feel protected and cared for there. Green, brown, and blue. Those are the next colors I will be adding to the mandala I am currently working on. I think that this one might be "The Our Mother Mandala." Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this poem again, with new insight.