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Open Poetry #41
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hoot_owl_rn
Member Patricius
since 1999-07-05
Posts 10750
Glen Hope, PA USA

0 posted 2007-11-25 09:29 PM


Forgotten

My mother forgot me somewhere
between dying and death -
long before we donned her name
to etched marble.

She called me Violet
    ( her mother now 20 years gone)
and Edna
   ( a neighbor from the Bronx)
but never again Ruth
and eventually she quit
talking altogether.

I tended to roses
and bedsores;
bathed her gardens
and paper-thin skin in water;
then prayed
they’d both winter over
another year.

I pleaded her case
to God; knelt on arthritic knees and
while Swaggart preached on tithing
I gave everything I had.

She died months before
spring thawed December's snow
and tulips peaked their heads
between the carcasses
of her Immortal Juno roses.

My mother forgot me…
     perhaps God did too.



I am nothing special...and my name will soon be forgotten,but I've loved another with all my heart and soul,and to me,this has always been enough.~N.S

[This message has been edited by hoot_owl_rn (11-25-2007 10:02 PM).]

© Copyright 2007 Ruth Kephart - All Rights Reserved
Artic Wind
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 8080
Realm of Supernatural
1 posted 2007-11-25 09:40 PM


Sad!

ARCTIC WIND

Rosemary J. Gwaltney
Senior Member
since 1999-08-26
Posts 997
northern mountains, Idaho
2 posted 2007-11-25 10:57 PM


I am amazed at this beautiful, heartbreaking poem.  I'm so sorry your mother forgot you at the end.  But oh, I have to tell you from the bottom of my heart - God did NOT forget you!  Nor will He ever!

Mysteria
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Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
3 posted 2007-11-25 11:13 PM


Ruth I have seen so many cases where loved ones retreat into the world we will never understand, and I doubt ever find any cure for, and it's sad.  Very sad.  You wrote the feeling of this journey almost too well.  
JamesMichael
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336
Kapolei, Hawaii, USA
4 posted 2007-11-26 03:55 AM


I was told that the way we are treated by our parents can influence the way we see God...if we have loving parents we believe that God is a God of love and if we have the opposite, we believe that God is that...seems to be some truth to that...James

hoot_owl_rn
Member Patricius
since 1999-07-05
Posts 10750
Glen Hope, PA USA
5 posted 2007-11-26 09:12 AM


A little postscript to this piece so as to not be seen in the wrong light:

This is a poem, this is not the way I feel about God as my faith is very strong. It is simply the way I feel that someone could feel upon losing their parent after praying so hard for healing.

James...your are right in your thoughts as my parents raised me in a Godly home and love the Lord...I indeed took after them

Thank you for the comments
Ruth

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