If for Mothers
(for Debbie)
If you can keep your lunch, while all about you
are losing theirs and spewing on you,
If you can forget yourself when all demand more of you
But make allowance for some fun too
If you can wait at ballet, soccer and painting
But then dash out to fill the pantry with supplies
And still be home at bedtime,cause stories are waiting
And yet look good with a twinkle in your eyes
If you can dream – dreams for the little miss or master,
If you can think – while chaos is the game;
if you can heal with a kiss and a plaster
And by a hug banish both heartbreak and shame
If you can bear to hear the truths you’ve spoken
Forgotten, and keep faith that they were heard
Or watch the ones you give your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with a well chosen word.
If you can make one heap of all your dishes
and rinse it all whilst planning meals for the morrow
And within the hour start again at your beginnings
And yet not give in to despair or weeping sorrow
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Love which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with toddlers and keep your sanity,
Or create kings, knights and princesses by working like a maid
If neither tantrums nor sulking provoke self pity
If all can count on you, but you never get paid
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With NINETY seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is my heart and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more -you’ll be my hero, my Mum
