Mother eternal

Then.....when I penned

Your return to Earth

I was not a mother

Yet I wrote....for

I saw, sensed the silent grief

In a child you cherished

I sensed the grieving heart of a mother

The pain in separation permanent

And sensed the uncertainty of life and time

Today when I sense pain in my limbs

And the weakening of muscle and heart

A missed heartbeat here and there

I know...how you must have felt

When you left your only loving child

To face a harsh and uncertain world

That poem emerged when you returned

To the lap and land that you belonged to.

This, on the threshold of that return.

Today I understand better the pain

In leaving....not the world

But a child I cherish and love.