My Mother -10 Poem by Smruti Ranjan Mohanty

MY MOTHER-10
BY-SMRUTI RANJAN MOHANTY

When you look at me,
a thousand sorrows
dissolve in the ocean of bliss.
Thousands of agonies find salvation.

When you smile,
a thousand problems find solutions.
When you open your lips
and say, "I am with you, my son,
go ahead without fear, "
I find no thorns on my way—
it is your love all the way.

At your lotus feet
my tears and smiles find their lone asylum.
In you, Maa, lies my whole life—
my childhood, youth and middle age,
my sorrow and happiness.
I and my life are all yours.

Tell me, my mother,
who will take care of your life
when you are no more?

You were never for yourself.
You lived for others—
for your children
and all those you loved.
For them, you stretched your life a little more,
for which you silently suffered.

My Maa,
who else can suffer for her children
except a mother?

Maa!
How beautiful life was
when you and Bapa were here.
How dull and pale the world looks
after losing you both.

To have that infinite bliss again,
one has to die
and take birth once more.

To have you and my father again,
I am prepared to die a hundred deaths
and take a hundred births,
to endure sufferings innumerable,
just to become
your unworthy son
again and again.

Even today, Maa,
I walk through life
holding the invisible edge of your saree,
afraid that if I let it go,
the world will become
too lonely for me.

And in every silent prayer of mine,
I still search for the warmth
of your tired hands on my head.

Smruti Ranjan Mohanty ©
India
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Published