Mother

Through the window I saw her kneeling in a pair of muddy overalls, planting flowers in what little light was left. I pushed open the screen door. The dead leaves and the weeds that had been growing for years had ben torn out and cleared away, and four black trash bags stood by the iron garden bench that no one ever sat on.

"What are you doing?" I called.
"Planting mums and asters" she said.
"Why?"
"I was in the mood."
"Why were you in the mood?"
"I sent off some more chapters this afternoon, so I thought I'd do something relaxing."
"What?!"
"I said, I sent off some more chapters to Jacob Marcus so i thought I'd relax a bit"
I couldn't believe it.
"You sent the chapters yourself? But you always give me everything to take to the post office!"
"Sorry. I didn't know it meant so much to you. Anyway, you were gone all day. And I wanted to get it off. So I just did it myself."

DID IT YOURSELF?
I wanted to shout.

My mother, her own species, dropped a flower into a hole and started to fill it with dirt. She turned and looked at me over her shoulder.
"Dad used to love to garden," She said, as if I'd never known him at all.



" Mother, you had me but I never had you,
I wanted you but you didn't want me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Farther, you left me but I never left you,
I needed you but you didn't need me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Children, don't do what I have done,
I couldn't walk and I tried to run,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home... "

John Lennon - Mother