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From: Vol.06 N.02 – Intersecting Energies

They Abandon Mother

by Monica Jasmine Karo

They abandon Mothers, like they abandon Mother

She who breathes us in as we dig her up cut her

All without her we suffer

Yet still we continue to abandon Mother

She is milk and honey

Our once plated breast that we nestled our unformed skulls into

We were stroked and nurtured by her touch, her whole hearted purity,

ultimate love.

 

But still we slap her …

We pull at her hair …

We scratch her …

… still we abandon Mother

They abandon Mothers like they abandon themselves

They abandon themselves as they pour demons down their throats

I light a candle to their poison, a toxicity they have brewed in their own bodies

They are wilted flowers left hanging in a mouldy cup

They are the cigarette ash that has become a daily breakfast

… that taste that lingers

… that smell that imbeds itself

They abandon themselves like they did their own Mother

And we abandon childbearing Mothers like we do our own Mother Earth

Ah, but…

She is the wise maiden that lays you on her back as you sweat out your pain

She is the weaver, the whisperer of fibrous magic who has woven ten thousand baskets to

cradle your food…

… cradle your essence

… just to carry you

She is the medicine you have walked 800 miles to drink

When you walked through the desert she blanketed you from the sands sink

She unlocks your soul from your mind and your mind from your soul

Without her you’re nothing, because of her, you can be starlight

She is the sand, its entirety a mystery, endless and unique

She comes from the stars, energy so profound of love and peace

She sings to the milky way as it reveals our dreaming

She is one with God and our Creator beings whose presence has never left us

She is red blood, rainbow, a blue river that continues to flow and she is the air in your lungs

that breathes your bone marrow vessel into motion

I have been ravenously trying to sit with Mother

… trying connect with her

… as I hold my child in my arms

In my state of hopelessness I come to realise that she already sits with me

sitting beside me, underneath me and above me she holds me, and in that moment,

I acknowledge her, I make my oath to her, I tell her I have not abandoned her, because she is

my Mother, and she is the reason for my being.

She is the pulse of the land, I feel her heartbeat as I clasp both my hands stating my plea.

This connection is eternal, everlasting, infinite and forever, yet why do we forget her,

the molten core of who we are, she who has never forgotten us. (?)

 

Published: July 2019
Monica Jasmine Karo

is a proud descendant of the  Brataualung, clan of Gunaikurnai Nation, Gunditjmara & Mukjarawaint peoples. She is a spoken word poet, actor, singer-song writer & emerging playwright based in Narrm(Melbourne)

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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