The Mother

Last night the Moon,

Slid down the boughs of

the quince tree outside my window,

And climbed in.

With one leg on the sill, he said,

“May I have the pleasure of

an evening with you, my lady?”

His brilliant white teeth flashed a

Dazzling smile at me; his tuxedo was immaculate.

“I’d love that!” said I, dazed. “Where are you taking me?

Someplace nice, I suppose?”

“I’ll take you to a field of tulips in the sky!

Our ride waits below,” he whispered, his

Midnight eyes flecked with pinpoints

Of light. Brushing past him to the

window, I felt an icy gust of wind

From the deepest crater on his chest.

“Close your eyes.”

And there I was! roller coasting across the skies,

Higher, way higher above the Milky Way, straddled on

A strawberry dragon breathing

blue violet flames (that tasted surprisingly,

like a rainbow roasted at the speed of light),

With the Moon behind me.

My swooning mind

held on for dear life, and a horrible

Sickness rose in a swell of bitter

Bile, up to my throat.

“Open your eyes,” his voice chilled my spine.

Pulling my tightly screwed up eyelids open a crack,

I peered down,

And almost fell off the dragon’s back.

It was a field of tulips in the sky all right.

Acres and acres of it in all directions

Magically suspended in some sort of a bubble of

Gravitational anomaly.

The sky was a shade of lurid crimson

and sulfurous yellow that reminded

me of a festering wound.

“Look.” It was a command.

“What place is this? Am I dead and is this Hell?

I see nothing but

Row after row after row of plants right up to the horizon,

but…” I trailed off.

“Look again. This is my other face,

That you never see,” said the Moon.

I looked again. And my blood froze.

Row after row after row of plants stretched

right up to the horizon,

The stems were human bones, the leaves were

bayonets and combat knives,

And the flowers -

Severed human heads, the blood dried so dark,

they were almost black!

The ugliest ever skeleton of a tree

stood in the midst, alone,

Hunched over, its twisted branches raised in

Agonised protest to

A god or a devil unknown.

Hanging from those withered talons,

like drooling tongues and oozing eyeballs,

Were leaves of gold and emerald fruits.

Beneath the tree sat a maiden of wondrous beauty.

Her head was bowed,

And her face, though averted,

Sent out lambent waves of love and pity that

Formed a lustrous circle gently swirling around her.

Her simple robe hung from her frail shoulders,

drooped in inordinate sorrow.

“Look at her face,” he whispered

His voice like sharpened steel,

and as if she’d heard him,

She turned her head towards us.

Oh the sight! The dark hollows

in her face where eyes should be,

were the stuff of nightmares!

They were blacker and more bitter

than Rachel’s grief that was heard,

Weeping loud and clear in Ramah.

From those black depths, crystal tears

ran in two streams down her breast

That turned into rivers of blood

as soon as they touched the ground.

In each hand she held a rose, whiter

than the driven snow, and sweeter than

The innocence of first love.

“She is the Mother,” the voice behind me whispered,

“Who braved an ocean of fierce pain,

In hot pursuit of Death, who stole her newborn son.

Her love led her here before him,

And, amazed beyond measure, Death granted her wish.

‘You can have your son’s life back,’ said he,

‘If you can pick him out from these two identical roses.

But beware, choose wisely!

For one of these will be a hateful monster,

Worse than those trapped in the

frozen lake of Cocytus;

One who, cursed by mothers everywhere, will create

a hell on earth, such as this.

The other will be an angel loved and honoured by the world over.

It’s your choice, for even I don’t know which is which.’"

Here he paused for breath.

“And so, she will sit here till the end of time,

weeping tears of blood

From sightless eyes, while other sons than

hers make life on earth an eternal misery!”

And with that the Moon was gone.

A night owl hooted in derision across

the thick crimson air (which was strange

because an ochre sun still glowered

on the horizon),

But no crickets chirped.