Through the silence of the night I hear you breathing heavily, the weight of the world on your shoulders,
You have learned to love others and nurture them all as a mother
And sometimes you get washed aside in the wake of a selfless storm.
Do not pity me- I am no victim,
I choose to do the things I do, I don’t need their gratitude
I am their friend, their wife, their mother, their lover, the whisper of light in the dark, a comforting sound through the vacuum of silence.
Through the years you have drudged and toiled, cooked their meals, held their hands, made their miserable monotonous lives a little less monochrome.
You were their teacher, their challenger, you coached as their mentor
And sometimes you were lost at sea in the current of compassion and a tide of woes.
Do not pity me, I have no need for sympathy
I held their lost souls in the palm of my hand and gave them love and space to grow,
I kept them safe in a sheltered harbour. I may bend but don’t break. I am willow.
©Alison Jean Hankinson
The image was in the public domain from wikimedia labelled for reuse.
This is for napowrimo 2018. Day 7.