Grace -for my mother, who is unbelievably brilliant Worn down after twenty-something years of giving Still, grappling for something more to surrender for these; Her own children. Supporting them through her own suffering, In a job she despised For a #life they idealised But she couldn't say no, Couldn't refuse Couldn't deny them of the #life they would choose She loved too much She was a mother of course It was natural to care; To want to give her children the best she could The only parent they would know For 10 years or so But even though he wasn't there When he was, they thought he cared Naïvety at its finest time He played his best tricks; His best lines This woman had sold her soul for her children But that wasn't enough for them They grew needy And greedy And wanting Wanting for something more So once they'd sucked the #life out of the woman they called mother Away they crawled To the one who had remained absent For most of their lives But who was suddenly so interested Now he had arrived. The one to play house With his son's new child Whilst his mother was left cold And waiting too long a while But she cared. Profusely she cared. Undeniably she cared. To the ends of this great Earth she would care! Til her heart stops beating, and even then Would she care. But he took no notice He had decided She was nothing to him now For no reason she could decipher; She saw no wrong-doing in all she had done for him But this as a repayment was too much to bear Being cut off- no, severed, hacked, wrenched Away from her son and granddaughter But for what? This mother blamed herself Broke down in tears She told me everything She told me of her fears That it was all her fault For the way that we turned out I cried and told her "no, no!" But it didn't affect her doubt The things each of us had done Hadn't been her fault at all But our own foolish mistakes Our meditated fall From grace, but she kept hers with the days The days that so eagerly passed Which helped, Because it meant she could forget the past.