A Mother’s Will

A Mother's Will

by Annette Vendryes Leach | Poem Performed at 50 in 50 by Kendra Holloway – Letter to Our Sons Virtual Event, February 2020

I am about to awaken

On the other side of reality, someone touches my shoulder

It is my son

He is shaking

And before he speaks, I know she has left him

I can sew missing buttons on his coat

Glue an army of broken toys

Pluck a rose thorn from his thumb

She doesn’t want him anymore

The bright morning light betrays his sorrow

His eyes spill tears of wasted years

I don’t have the thread

The glue won’t stick

The thorn is too deep

A mother’s will alone can reorder the universe

But it cannot mend a broken heart

I can only help him see

How all things built on desire will crumble

Passions begin and passions end

But true love is like the sun

Love shines on and on

Unmoved, unaffected, untouched

By dark clouds of longing

Love, like sunlight, is endless

Love is not attached to anything but love

You are like the sun

You are love

Shine your light on what is worthy of your love

Now gather the fragments of your heart

And fit them together with peace as your glue

The time has come to end a romance, yes

But it is never the end of love.