Beyond the Grave

A lamp flickers

Shadows dancing

On dimly lit walls

A weak flame

Flickers

Before a frail figure

Tormented by a past

That never was

From beyond the depths

Of the human soul

A silent voice

Hauntingly calls

“Why me?”

A mass of flesh

Denied of life

Termed a female foetus

And thrown away

Now beckoning

From beyond the grave

To the silence of the heart

That none can know

I call…

Was it worth it, my mother?

Where is the male you bore?

Your assumed security

During days of frailty

A presumed support

During the rest of retirement

I could have been your laughter

When your flame no longer flickered

I could have been your strength

When fragility clothed you

I could have been your joy

During distressed times

Do you know…

That I would have loved you

Through your failings

I might have even,

Left your purse strings intact

Your hands would have bathed my children

And sang them to sleep

And I would have put back

That twinkle in your eye

Alas!

For that was not to be

A burden I was

Thought to be

And I ceased to exist

With a decree

But I will remain

Forever with you

My Mother

In your loneliness

Telling you

Of a life that could have been

But never was.

A poem about the harsh reality of female infanticide - a life speaks from beyond the grave to a lonely and frail mother of a life that could have been, but never was.