WHEN:

When a mother holds her new-born baby for the very first time,

She goes to an ancient place with no reasoning, sense nor rhyme,

She promises forever to protect, love & her whole life to cherish,

This little boy, until her last breath & the day that she shall perish.

For him, her arms are always open for whenever he should need,

And her eyes there forever watching & she is always there to heed,

Caring & nurturing, cosseting & loving, taking care of all his little ills,

Removing his tears cuts & bruises with far more than doctor’s pills.

She never, ever asked anything from him, wanted nothing in return,

She never complained, when as a teen, he scowled & at her spurned,

Every cent she earned, was spent on him, to send him into the world,

As she proudly watched her little son, from baby & soon to man unfurl.

The day arrived, swaggering out of the door & out of her life he went,

The babe, child & surly teenager now gone & her every cent well spent,

From sweet child, a charming, confident young man he turned out to be,

Blowing a kiss saying, “Bye mum, someday, you, I´ll come home to see”.

When a mother loses her loving son to the frightening world out there,

A sadness descends on her soul & settles beneath her snowy white hair,

She knows it´s his life to live alone & he must live it, as only he sees fit,

She´ll never know if it is good or bad, but she knows that she did her bit.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if he phoned occasionally, just once in a little while?”

Just to ask how she was feeling, or maybe a short visit to give her a smile,

She realizes he´s now a grown man, with a family & a home all of his own,

But something´s amiss, it´s sad he doesn’t think of his old mother all alone.

When an old mother looks into memory´s long gone & fading lost old face,

She goes back in time with joy, to that ancient & very special precious place,

That place where she held her little son & vowed with her heart from that day,

That while she breathed life, for him she´d always be there & would always stay.