We are all Mothers

My mother and me 1 week before she died. I love you now and always. My heart, my mum, my protector.

Born of your gender. 
I create new life just like you 
and yet
you, do not afford me the title, mother.
To you, I am childless, cannot possibly understand, not part of the conversation
and yet,

I AM MOTHER

No being has suckled my breasts nor clung to my ankles but 
I am mother
your definition limits us both
me of my existence, 
you, of all nature and meaning

I do not do the drop-off, the pick-up, the swimming clubs nor have endless adoring photos which to place on the dinner table and yet,

I AM MOTHER

You see and hear my child, 
but unlike your own, 
you judge, isolate and ridicule her
my child, and mother are one
whole, complete and of a different nature
a nature which is boundless

I did not bear down in waves of screams as she made her way to me 
nor did I, feel the wetness between my loins as she drew her first breath 
and yet,
I shake with fear, every day, just like you.

What if she, for the slightest of seconds, disappears from my mind, my heart, my world

I have raised her, buried her, recovered her

I AM MOTHER

I am mother each time I sustain, protect and nourish something beyond me and all that I know
I am mother to you when you will not be one for yourself
I am mother to a planet who yearns to be a child
I am mother to a life which I was born into and one which I will watch die.
You can continue to deny me, if it make’s you feel wiser, safer, bigger and better 
and yet, 

I AM MOTHER
WE ARE ALL MOTHERS