Mother Knows Best | Teen Ink

Mother Knows Best

April 22, 2015
By MissAkari GOLD, Sierra Madre, California
MissAkari GOLD, Sierra Madre, California
10 articles 5 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you."


when you are born,

you stare up at me in awe, eyes wide,
and i cannot help but love you.

(my child, i think, my offspring)

when you begin to walk steadily on two feet,
i provide for you.
you start to want more and more.

i concede, and offer you what i have.

you start to reign with stone cold fists and i,
i kneel at your feet, head bowed, gold thorns orbiting my scalp.

(i am your savior but you are my god)

you bind me to a boulder and your hungry talons rake against my torso and
i give, i give and give and give-
gizzards and matte intestines and bones bared like tree branches-
but you are never satisfied,
it is never enough.
i clasp hands in prayer, begging, pleading.
you tell me one day more, one more gluttonous helping of my bone marrow,
colored like filthy sludge,
just-
one-
more-

(and we are trapped in a vicious cycle slowly gaining speed downhill but you need me so i-)

one day.
one day i will wheeze and collapse but you will take my ribs and
slice me open and forage around in
my empty corpse but one day.
one day i will be gone forever.

(will you be okay will you be okay will you be- )

for now i am here, hide stretched taut over sharp
cheekbones like axes, ivory limbs missing,
golden elixir weeping from gashes,
but
i
am
here.

(and i try to stay grounded, else we both float away)

i am not whole but i am here for you and
i am your lifeblood, and still i love you so.
my child, you will continue to take and take from
my physical body but my love for you is vast and bottomless and you
are a hungry void.

you ask me why i am called mother nature.
i offer up blood, bones, and tears in response and i pray,
i pray that one day it will be enough for the both of us.


The author's comments:

This poem details the destructive impact that humans have had on Mother Nature from her point of view. I was interested in the "kind and caring mother" cliche that we label nature as, so I took a more literal spin on it. I hope we- as humans- can recognize the painful burden that we are placing upon nature and work hard to pave a road to a better future.


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