Tears of a Mother

Is there nothing so sad

as the tears of a mother?

 

The woman who, regardless,

stands at the sink

washing dinner dishes:

 

the woman whose husband

has not smiled in years,

the woman whose children

do not love each other,

the woman whose mother

will die before year’s end.

 

This is the woman who

gave everything she had

to lift the souls of so many

 

and all she does now

is scrub, scrub, scrub.