When you were here

When you were here, with me I scarcely ever saw you;

Who takes the living with any seriousness?

I yelled at you, selfishly, with insensitivity.

You never frowned or made me feel I gave you pain.

Never gave up the faith that I’d finally improve.

You found ways of fending and finding for me;

For me you gave up sleep and comfort all your life.

Your heart knew more about me than myself I did;

Finding with feeling where the intellect would fail

Each flavour, goal, ambition I could ever have.

Now you are gone and I am left alone without you,

Unguarded from the slings of fate that are so hurtful.

I can with effort glimpse your face but fleetingly,

And sometimes hear you in my mind’s ear.

Never can I summon those days of royal glory

When I was king of kings, my sweet Mother dear.