When Mother Weeping/Mama Was a Soldier

When Mother Weeping

Anguish
of decades spent
Lord
surrounded by spaces
Husband
at death away
Children
a seed scattered
No promise
the morrow
A peace
certainly denied

She is
a remnant
of sisters
whose voices
are pillows
a music
lain softly aside
Some times
she holds them
a sleep
whisper and
makes their song
solace in
what might
have been

What mother's
tear has cried
borne the weight
of time
crush of
unacceptable losses
whose shoulders
bent never break
Proud head
thrown back
in Winter song
I
by God
claim my blood

Mama Was a Soldier

Mama was a soldier
She stood five feet very tall
protective of her tiny army
made of the stuff of first rank
no stranger to front line engagement

Mama was a soldier
attended by pride and integrity
stepped forward into the fray
always aware that survival
was all she could ever hope to gain

Mama was a soldier
never let fear own her
lest her army fail
to hold that pale dark line
like blood on a shoestring

Mama was a soldier
retired to her Winter home
in a hard unforgiving land
that she might carry the fight
Good soldiers never rest

© 2003 Thomas Paul {WORDWULF} SternerHowe