A Complicated Mother’s Day

It’s just a Hallmark holiday, a day of
profit for florists, restaurants and
chocolatiers, a day of burnt breakfast
in bed, macaroni creations, brunches,
lunches, love and adoration, sweetness,
sleeping in for some, queen for a day….
but not for all, for others there’ll be no
fawning children, no candy kisses, no
skyping, text-ed, voice-mailed wishes,
out of sight, out of mind, some will count
the loss of children never born or lost
to death too soon, childless mothers on
the outside looking in…while others just
beyond the veil will swoon from summer
land listening to the whisperings of
children young and not so much who
wish that they had one more day to rest
their head upon their mother’s breast
to hear her heartbeat one more time,
just one more day…and others still who
wish that they could reconcile the mothers
that they wanted with the mothers that
they got and mothers who wished they
could have been more, or better, or less
flawed, we are a complicated lot, mothers
young and old, passed on, passed over,
clinging to memories, sifting through
old photographs, the beautiful, the
melancholy, bittersweetness, children
come and they grow, regret’s a futile
exercise, so please remember to be
kind, don’t assume that just because
she’s had a fruitful womb she’s feeling
blessed, for some, it’s just hallmark
holiday at best, hearts put to the test.

~kat