My Fence

I cannot sleep anymore Mother

You left and plunged me in deep sorrow

Your pallu my comforter 

Your lap my mattress

Your breasts my headrest

Your milk the tastiest

Your smell I can never forget

A potpourri of scents engulfs my senses

I remember those times when he

Hurled abuses, hit you black and blue

Because my escapades you defended

Hiding me behind you acting as my fence 

Warding off blows for me were meant

Took the whiplashed with his belt 

Deep scars that forever remained

Much after he had left and you as a

A single parent brought me up with courage

I remember sitting by your hospital bed

Stroking the scars in your skin had deepened

Each welt had a story to tell of how to like any

Mother, you passed it off as childishness

Arguing with your husband; my father who

Had little patience, made a life for us a living hell

And then you became my only child in your old age.

I tried to nurse you back to health

But you left, and now I am daily tormented

With the thought who will protect me,

When I have aged and to others become a big nuisance.

Come back dearest Mother, my pillow,

Comforter, and be my headrest.

Wipe off the sweat with your pallu's edge, 

And that's the way I would like my life to end.