MAMA (2025)
by Kevin "Rashid" Johnson
You know all my
Faces
My every shade
My light and dark spaces
The brick beds I've made
On which I've laid
You've endured me
When I try you
Defy you
Test you
But when at my
Best too
When I've tempted
Your anger
Even put you in
Danger
I've been met with
Only a mother's patience
Your outrage concealed
With smiling faces
I've struck nerves
Like piano cords
Sown fields
Of discord
But have never
Seen your back
No matter how far
I swerve and stray
You keep
Coming back
Breaking down doors
Prying open cracks
Through my
Afflictions
Addictions
You find me
Bring me back
With an embrace
So great
It spans the entire globe
Fueled by a mother's
Undying hope
The only soul
Who knows me
Who never
Says no to me
Loving me
Even when I
Hated me
You've never berated me
Negated me
You gave me a
Safe place
As others
Slammed their doors
In my face
Acres of relations
Laid to waste
Mama you carried
My suffering and hurt
Held me crying
In the folds
Of your skirt
Consoling me
Even as you
Wept oceans of despair
From things I did
When I didn't seem
To understand or care
Even things
I'm afraid to share
You mama
Are my anchor
Despite the rancor
The things I've done
That can't be recanted
Things I seem
To take for granted
When I show no
Concern
Sped headlong along bridges
Crashed and watched them burn
The cycles of self-injury
I repeat
Lessons I've never quite learned
But I do know
That nothing is as true as
You
And your love born in
Maternity
No matter what I do
Mama I too
Love you for all
Eternity
_________
* Dedicated to a friend and Comrade struggling alongside a daughter
suffering with mental and chemical illnesses
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