My Mother Poem by Samah Khan

The soft bough of my mother's arms
Entwine around me from the arms of a tree called 'Eternity'
And this bears the fruit of love and nourishment all year long;
Its strong trunk keeps me from all nature of harm
While the leaves dress me till I gain maturity
And drop, a seed from its fruit, on the ground where I belong;

Then she shades me, from a near distance,
Watches me grow with a sturdy shaft to offer
While I slowly grow taller and further away from her tenderness;
Leisurely and lingering, under her omnipresent assistance,
I leave her shade, her food, her roots, her water;
(Only to realize) As a tree, I grow big; as a child, I grow less;

Weary, but unfailingly the mother, she endures
As slowly all her fruits and their seeds become sovereign
Still loving, still caring, still nurturing like ever before
And I still yearn for the coveted embrace of her branches,
Which are forever raised in prayer for me, unceasingly, as if never enough
Slowly wilting away herself, but leaving the soil more fertile,
Because till her final breath (and after) , it is yet her fruit she's thinking of