Mother's Day [from "The Daily Mirror"]

The brain has chambers
on different floors
a warren of offices
upstairs a library
a wine cellar below
but the soul is simple
like a mother who
packs your lunchbox
and you walk home
wearing the raincoat
she made you take
though it is sunny
and mild my mother
when I was four was
talking to another
mother and I strayed off
and went to the park
and found someone to
walk me home where I sat
on a car waiting for
her to come back she was
frantic but when she saw
me she laughed the soul
is a hungry boy eating
her soup in the kitchen

-- David Lehman

Note: "May 6" from The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry (2000). May 6 1996, when this poem was written, was Mother's Day.

Comments

[Laura Orem]

I've loved this poem from the first time I read it.

[Amy A.]

I think it is a wonderful poem as well.