“My mother has no wrinkles” a Mother’s Day poem

My Mother Has No Wrinkles

 

 

My mother has no wrinkles
Her hair, no hint of gray
No pounds of time on her behind
For her to wish away.

Her arms aren’t soft or flabby
Her spine is never bent
No failing ears so she can’t hear
Her granddaughter’s laments.

My mother never argues
No critiquing of my ways
No sacrifice or sage advice
To mimic in my days.

To celebrate her presence
And give honor she is due
Would take much more than coins or store
Could offer, old or new.

I could bring her flowers
But they’d wither in the heat
For she lies alone beneath a stone
Where earth and body meet.

I’m ever in her shadow
Her face is in my mirror
With every thought and each age spot
My blessings become clearer.

The stripes around my middle
That motherhood did leave
Are cause to praise the giver of days
And the pattern He did weave.

Every single heartbeat
Each new candle on a cake
Show I have breath and life, not death
And stories yet to make.

I’m older than my mother now
The wrinkles are all mine
But I’ll not cry or even sigh
Or curse the gifts of time.

I’ll not bemoan my aging
I won’t wish it away
For she died young, her songs unsung
But I still have today.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, and thoughts of my own mother, who would have been 70 years old today, are dominating my mind. I had to dump my words in order to process them, so thank you for humoring me with my cheesy, simplistic poem of reflection. The Lord called her home at the young age of 38, and her sudden death contains the most complex collection of trials and blessings I have ever had. But more than anything else, it taught me that time is a gift. Years are precious. Aging is one of the greatest blessings any mother could hope for.  

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, old or young, who still. have. today! You are blessed, indeed!

And thank you, God, for every undeserved minute.