Moms Do Lots Of Things

Moms do lots of things.

The thing they do best is care.

Where and how they learned to care,

I guess usually comes from another Mom...

Their own.

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Dad's can't train Moms to care,

Though some Dads care, too.

Dads just don't train sons to care.

Moms train sons to care.

They do it by example.

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Like the nights the fevers raged

Low and high, no matter.

Her cool hands (when the fever was low,)

And her "ice cold" hands (when the fever was high,)

Said, even without words, "I care."

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Those sporting events

That weren't World Series caliber,

Were somehow elevated to that level

Because "Mom cared."

She even learned the fine points of

The sports in case there ever were

Any "fine" points to comment on.

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My Mom made her kids the center

Of the home she loved and cared for.

But we each knew the real center

Of our home was Mom, like the drop

Which starts the caring circles

Reaching outward.

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Mom was (and by our good fortune

Still is) as near as the nearest phone,

As intense at listening as when we

Chatted alone of the stages of things

We thought so supreme in our lives,

And we knew (and know) her caring.

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The biggest secret she kept

Was that she didn't really know

The right answer for everything.

Unnoticed she left us free to learn

For ourselves those answers which,

Once learned, we felt she always knew

Were right for us.

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In reality, those answers came

Because she cared enough to

Prepare us properly to find them

For ourselves, against the day

When we might need to call,

But the phone would only ring,

Or not ring at all.

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Like the other rings, those of her caring,

The matching circles, enlarging

And ennobled, one day will reach

Another shore and take on fresh outlines

Of that place, only to return

With the echoes of how much she still

Cares.

Copyright 2003 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.