Mum’s Dead Poem by Raj Arumugam

Mum’s Dead



the call came;
it was evening
it was sudden
but the expected words
were intoned by my sister:
mum’s dead


I am reading; I live worlds away and I receive the words and put the book down; and I let the words percolate…the words flow in, as the words in a radiant song might spread themselves slowly into one’s mind …


take things in their stride,
she said when I was child
I will be gone and one day you too
and so did many before me
and countless will after you:
so take things in their measure;
there’s no need to exaggerate


And I tell my sister I’d book a flight and be out there the next day, as soon as … but she is not listening; she is crying…


do you see sweet child
the expanse of time
and stretch of events
as far as mind can go?


And so I make myself a cup of tea to keep up with the routine…I’m a creature of habit and so I dip some biscuits in my tea….


and the sunlight
spread out on the green tree
and the dark crept up and
embraced everything
so nothing could be seen


The flight is in the next morning and I go to bed at about the same time as I normally do…The mind does not seem to have any dent, any trace of pain…


do you see sweet child
the radiance of life
so the death of a bird
is no less than
the death of a human?


It is an expected death after years of suffering and conflict...a motion in opposite directions between cancer and human…


I will be gone and one day you too
and so did many before me
and countless after you


…and so mum died …


so take things in their measure;
there is no need to exaggerate


I have my dinner, prepared for one in the microwave…all in a packet, heated up and self-served on a plate…and I go to bed…I will sleep, wake up at seven and fly three hours later…How can I sleep in peace? It is possible for all to sleep in peace, strengthened by words mothers give their children, and which their children carry with them all their years…


and in bed I cry
and the tears are surely for me
for lost worlds of familiarity
and symbols of security


…for the words had sustained one for years and other deaths and other loss; for the words had sustained one for long in all pain and all sorrow…but now the pain was deep within….


take things in their stride,
she said when I was child
I will be gone and one day you too
and so did many before me
and countless will after you:
so take things in their measure;
there is no need to exaggerate

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Patrick A. Martin 14 July 2009

It is said - Raj thank you for the way you said it.

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