Mom is Everywhere

Poetry

Mom’s been gone
Three years and counting
Yes, I am counting
Because it counts

But is she gone
I wonder
Truly gone?

She’s in the kitchen
Peeping over my shoulder
I feel it
Oops, I spilled milk
I can hear her say “so clumsy”
She’s on the balcony
Surveying her beloved plants
She was happy to see the Brahma Kamala bloom
I managed to keep it alive
Accomplishment
But she won’t admit it

She is in the living room
Watching her favorite serials
I dare not use the tv during those slots
I can hear her say
“What other entertainment do I have”
I could feel the heat
Of her disapproval
When I shouted at my little kid
“Why do you shout at her?
Make her understand in a gentle way”
Yes, I heard her, I did!

Sometimes when I sleep at odd hours
I hear the tinkle of her bangles
As she comes to wake me
And remind me of my duties as an adult
“Who sleeps at such strange hours?”
When I am not well, lying in bed
I hear the bangles before she comes to check on me
“Get up, walk around
You will be fine”
Her cure for all maladies
I drag myself out of bed
Feeling a bit better already

Sometimes I hear her on the phone
Talking to her sister
Who is now gone too
I don’t hear the words
But I know their voices and their accents
And the way they speak to each other
A tone reserved for their conversations alone
Mom is everywhere
I hear her all the time
I know what she is going to say before she says it
Even my kid knows what she is about to say

Yup, mom is everywhere
In every vessel in the kitchen
In every leaf of every plant on the balcony
In every fiber of my being
In every beat of my heart
Where she will always be