A Wife

Oktober 22, 2019

Being in a starvation was the best friend of mine since I was six
do not expect it due to a religion-thing or fasting
cause I didn’t know what it was like to have a faith like you.

It was 1962 when my father passed away without telling me that there was a grief among those delightful feelings, leaving the housewife-mother with 4 children I was number 2.


I went to school at the morning wearing black plastic bags
to cover the toes while friends already had their shoes
it didn’t matter cause it’s only five kilometers.
And worked at the noon
for wasted rice as a return
sometimes nothing at all that made my mother mad and sad.
It was fanciest dinner when she could buy an egg for five of us once a month.
Other days without works, water was enough.


I remembered the day
when my mother screamed and extremely exasperated
it was an exhausting day
after school, peeling the coconuts, lifting dozens of  kilos of rice, cleaning up the cowshed
I could not stand the hunger. I ate three spoonfuls of eggplant soup supposed to be for dinner.
She pinched me three times and three bailers of cold water from the well
over my head, not allowing me to come in before the three freaking hours.
Promised myself would not do that to mine.


Now life is much better. Four children of mine
three have married one told me to wait.
No one is failing making me proud and pleased
Only sometimes too busy to make a phone call.
Only sometimes too distant for the appointment.

Only sometimes I feel that no one stays
leaving our spacious house frightening even more with the heavy rain
the desolation haunts the longing hurts
Even more than more when my husband starts to grumble, the chest pain, the heavy breath, the itch...to whom should I rumble when they know me as the bravest, the strongest, and the vigorous.
It is the hardest thing to live as others’ imagination.

But somehow they should’ve known
a mother is a human too.


-          Inspired by a mother of four

You Might Also Like

0 komentar

Popular Posts

ON INSTAGRAM @LILISNURHA

Subscribe