Poetry .. for Mom (Mother's Day 2010)

More than I could ever say

She has been a mom longer

Than she has been my mom

She had two successful trial runs

Before I came along

Even if I was her first boy

I don’t know how much she gleaned

From my two older sisters

And their care and feeding

But I do know I can’t remember a time I worried

That she didn’t know what she was doing

If she worried that worry

She never showed it to me

I didn’t always think she was right

(Although now, older, I realize she was right

Much more than I thought back then)

But, she was always still mom

I know there were times

I didn’t give her the respect she deserved

But, she still never stopped giving me love

Even though, now, as a parent myself

I know there are times I am afraid

She was fearless in my eyes

She was never afraid to correct me

She was never afraid to extol me

She was never afraid to admonish me

And she was never afraid to embrace me

As a child,

I never knew other kinds of moms existed

I thought everyone had a mother as good as mine

Now, over half a lifetime later

I can see the great and precious gift God gave to me

She will readily tell you that I was a gift from God

But she was not the sole recipient of gifts that day

God gave me the greatest mom in the world

For every time I may have forgotten to tell you

For every time we parted without hugs

For every time I could have said, and didn’t,

I love you, mom

More than I could ever say

Ron Simpson, Jr,

May 6, 2010