"A Word From A Mother's Heart" - Vanaja Tatineni
The walls of this room, the desktop,
The mobile screen—
Everywhere, it’s just your pictures,
Reminding me, every single second,
That you are far away.
Our street, once bustling
With your friends coming and going every hour,
The roar of your bike, every so often,
The music you played at full volume—
Without them, the house is drowned in silence,
And it has suddenly rendered me mute.
Your room, once a beautiful mess, now gleams like a mirror,
Leaving me with so much empty time.
I, who once grumbled while cooking only your favorite dishes,
Now find the empty vessels in the kitchen
Mocking me, like the void that has filled my heart.
Wherever I hear someone call out “Amma,”
My womb stirs instantly.
It feels just like when you used to call me, so softly, “Amma!”
All these years I sheltered you under my wings,
And now, after giving you wings to cross continents,
No matter how many emails, how many texts flow endlessly,
I cannot measure the distance between us
As easily as they measure it in nautical miles, my child!
I just keep waiting for that link to connect,
On the video call.
In this rote system of education,
In the weary search for a job,
You didn’t leave wholeheartedly,
And I didn’t send you just for money.
This is the life-spirit for today’s youth.
When will the spirit of a revolution,
That stands up and confronts, ever come?
When your thoughts tread new paths,
And you begin to measure labor by its exchange value,
We are mere wooden dolls, unable to stop
This exodus of intellect.
We are mothers who failed to raise a Veera Shivaji.
Until my last breath,
Like an eyelid guards the pupil of the eye,
This mother’s wish is to be a shield for her child.
This is a word from the hearts of all those mothers
Who have had to live far away from their children.
కామెంట్లు లేవు:
కామెంట్ను పోస్ట్ చేయండి