Green

My Mother’s foot falls sweep across the forest floor
leaving Spring Beauties in her passing.
My Mother’s laughter is woodsy green
velvet and infectious
tickling like the leaves of white pine.
My Mother’s hands are willow branches
tender like Spring’s new buds
wrapping gently around my heart.
I call upon my Mother whenever I am in need
as children often do
and she answers like an echo.
She is there, always there
like roots reaching out to close the distance.
I thank my Mother for my life
for the way she raised me to be strong like a sugar maple
and for the way she loves me like a sturdy oak.
Bright blessings upon my Mother
who stands proudly in the sun.

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY

Copyright 2001, Arianna Alexsandra Collins

Note: I wrote this poem for my mother, Mary Ann on Mother’s Day fifteen years ago.
This will be my first Mother’s Day without her.
Mary Ann died October 15, 2015, just shy of her 74th birthday.