Mother

by Sharmila Pokharel


If I go home
I will find my mother
doing the household chores,
tears rolling down her cheeks

With the dream of earning more
I am rushing on and on
towards success
counting each second and each minute

While she cleans the same dishes,
prepares one meal after another,
cleans again and counts the days again

As the mornings, afternoons, and evenings pass by,
her body stoops a little more
her eyes get blurred a little more.


* * * * *

"Mother" was previously published in Somnio: The Way We See It, a collaborative book project of three poets and an artist including the author

Sharmila Pokharel is a bilingual poet from the Himalayan country Nepal. Her third book is a bilingual poetry collection, My Country in a Foreign Land, co-translated by Alice Major. She is a co-author of Somnio: The Way We See It, a poetry and art book published in 2015.