I bore your pains in my heart
with solemn patience
in your innocent smile, I found my refuge
I rose with the sun and slept only when the moon romanced her sky
your erratic and incessant cries at night
turned me into a watchwoman
but I delighted in my suffering
I endured the painful sweetness of your unwitting torments
for you gave me a reason to live
you taught me the monstrous sweetness of womanhood
through you I learnt the joys of motherhood
now that your eyes can farther than your nose
please remember me, son
I defied nature's commands to make you a being
I rose while it was yet dawn
my feets had mapped routes; an evidence of my incessant trekking of miles
my refuge was in your existence
my head swelled up when your eyes started to brim
for then
I was accepted into the fold
for I gave a life to you
I took your blames in the face of assault
I laid my life when sickness wanted to deprive you of a living
and now that you are a being
now that your head is bigger than your shoulders
please remember me, son
Before I became a virtue of antagonism
before I became a witch haunting the essence of your presence
before I became the hurdles barring your life's progress
I had given you my all
I gave you life in painful travail
my blood was the first stream that washed you into the calabash of this vale of sorrows
before you soar high like the eagle
and your heart is masked from motherly devotion
remember a man can never pay for his mother's breast milk
I milked you into life
I suckled you into a being
please remember me, son
If words have the virtue to navigate thy soul to my lonely tears
if crafting could mould out my silent sobs
then let these lines thy reminder be
for that wandering soul who took delight at your nurturing
mothers are prime only when they rime with time
please let my words a substance have
for my soul endeared in thee my son
please remember me
before my bones are rustled by termites.