May Love Follow You – A Poem by Rowe Williams

for mom

There is a book of poems titled "Mother Love" 
by the fortunately named Rita Dove. 
I mention it to justify the 
inadequacy of one poem 
to broach the topic. 
But I will try. 

You see, mothers are challenging. 
To themselves as much as anyone else. 
To be faced with the passion 
of a mother 
is a challenge itself. 
The ferocity of love. 

We were made for love. 
But still, a mother's love 
is strange to me. 
At once foreign 
and the most natural thing I know. 
The fullness of love. 

A love to fill not one heart 
but two. 
A love that doesn't just love, 
but gives, teaches, molds, nurtures. 
The foundation of life and love. 
The endurance of love. 

And mother knows 
the pain of that love. 
The vulnerability of a life 
in two parts. 
But her own safety is not under 
the protection of love. 

Because she has chosen 
the second part of her life. 
Chosen her child, 
me, 
to be life now. 
The choice of love. 

And that choice 
has made me.