Lying awake I heard

Sobbing lonely

Heartache days

Gone by crept down

To ease those tears

She cried

In poverty with

Rats as pets

Such hand

Me-downs

But music to

My ears

Was laughter

To this poorest

Life with

Lonely mum

So tired with

Strife

Yet fighting odds

With five so

Young not least

Myself a baby

Son finding

Nightly tears

So spilt

Surprised to family

Was no guilt

Oft let go

This wretched show

Of desolation

There below

Now years have

Gone tis decades on

My deepened sadness

Grown for lonely kin

Can-not debate in soul

To a relationship

Long since sown

For mater's life so

Sacrificed her children

Were her only goal

copyright © 2003 fabian cortez