MAMA IN SWITZERLAND
I’m rich, very rich….
I decide to give Mama a treat…
ma Mama is uneducated, rustic and rural
from inside Africa
but Mama’s sweet African Mother…
I decide to give her a treat –
I take her to Switzerland,
where hotels are the cleanest…
We lodge in, wife, Mama and I,
ma Mama having her own room.
Truly, the room is heaven-clean:
all white, heaven-white, impeccably white…
So we three unite in purpose
have dinner, share wine, watch TV
see ma Mama off to her room
we to ours…
It is morning
I go to say ‘good morning, Mama'
but what do I see?
Mama is sleeping on the floor
Mama slept on the bare floor all night
her wrapper her bedspread
her headgear her pillow
the bed spotless, untouched.
‘Why, Mama, where did you sleep?’ I asked.
Mama answered, on the floor she slept.
‘Why?’ was my shocked query.
Mama took long, subdued, respectful, almost fearful look at the perfect bed
Mama responded
‘This bed, this bed is too clean. It shouldn’t be made dirty…’
And I,
transfixed and stunned
looked at ma Mama
looked at the bed
and remembered how we came all the way
to catch luxury and enjoy comfort
yet Mama slept on the floor all night
ma Mama slept on the floor…
Hot tears rolled down my long, lost, black face…
