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Mother’s Day is next Sunday. I remind you now because I want you to be ready for it, whatever you are doing for her.
My mother died many years ago, but I still miss her.
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Mom
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An ordinary maid
Didn’t even finish high school
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A housewife and a birthing machine
Nine laborious births and six wailing children
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A courageous woman
Fled in the late 1940’s the Chinese civil war
Brought her children to a safe moor
A long journey from Guangzhou to Hong Kong
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A shrewd farmer
Side-by-side with her husband
Cultivated acres of acrid land
Didn’t make much money in the end
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A responsible parent
Fed the kids three meals a day
Despite living in subsistence
And having debts to pay
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A wise guardian
Sent all six children to tuition-charging high schools
Education was at all costs to be sought
Borrowing money was an afterthought
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A tender mother
Cooked me a dish of mushroom stems one day
Claimed it was my favorite food
I probably said that once in jest
But you took it to a mother’s chest
It must take months to finish that gourmet quest
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An inexhaustible mother
I had typhoid when I was two
You carried me on your back
Walked miles to the hospital
Just to be turned away
The doctor said for the kid there weren’t too many days
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A nightingale
The hundredth time I grazed my knees
When I came home you would take care of me
You would patch me up like an injured chick
The thousandth time I had a cold or an ear-ache
You always had the perfect herbal medicine for it
The most pungent, most horrible-tasting kind to submit
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An angel
I had an aortic dissection when I was sixty
You saw me knocking at Heaven’s gate
When Peter was checking his appointment book
You told him there was no reservation for this bro
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Mom
I miss you
Mom
I never said enough I love you
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*** The End ***
(The dissemination of this writing is for non-commercial enjoyment only. The author reserves the copyright for himself)
