"DON'T GO"

          DON'T GO

My mother's touch
Always in my life
my mother's touch

I'm her only love, she tells me
Knowing she loves others
I know her heart's meaning

My mother is ninety-one
a blind waif

Ninety-one

I never thought I'd have her
these long but short, short years
And how I dread

    Oh, mommy, how I fear
    Oh, mommy, how it hurts

to have someday to say

"My mother was..."

    You say you eat but all I see is bones
    Your vanished frame I wrap within my own

    Your eyes, which once
    though limited their sight
    in life and beauty saw
    unlimited delight
    a cause for jubilation
    must weave their cloth
    of brilliant, silken hues
    with tenuous threads
    of your imagination
    Mamita, I never told you this
    IT CRUSHED ME, CRUSHED ME, CRUSHED ME
    So many times I'd tightly close my eyes
    to shut all beauty out
    No longer did I care to see
    what you no longer could

My mother is strong
I've known her to stroke
her dead daughter's still warm face
and live to rejoice

    I'm so very sorry
    Sorry for pretending nothing could wound the warrior woman
    Sorry for buying the bravado
    Not daring, not bearing
    to stare at your hurt
    Mommy, do we still have time
    for you to be my only love too?  Again.

For mom, Lucy Meinhofer
12/21/1907 to 10/8/2002
                                        Marta Esperanza Edgcombe,  Friday, May 7, 1999