Mother at 53

Today, motherland is 53. So I tried composing an ode for her, but I'm torn and too stumped by her ineptitude and indifference to fend for her diverse children.

*

I want to call you Mother,
with a child’s heart
that is blind
to your scars
and sores:

your desire for what’s ugly
and brutal
your body shot through with waste
age scored with blood –
I want to love you

regardless

sing an ode to you
but images of you
wrench from my heart
a threnody



photo credit: informationng.com