Voices From The Ghetto: On Bended Knees (Part 3)

The following is the third in a series of poems from “Voices From The Ghetto”, published by author Gaiven Clairmont and serialised in Wired868: 

The tears flood her face

As it already floods her heart

She kneels to pray

With distress etched through her frowns

Frowns in response to the path chosen by her only child

For his ways are so far from your teachings dear God

She sighs as she continues her prayers

She longs for him to switch directions on his road

For she knows he will meet a dead end sooner than he expects

And far too sooner than she wants

And he won’t be able to rest in peace after his life

For he’ll be met with immeasurable pain and un-calculable strife

 

All she wants from him is to substitute his life

For one that doesn’t compromise his morality

And doesn’t shorten his mortality

She cries out

“Lord he has been seduced by the money and the worldly passions that it brings and now he doesn’t know how to give it up,

He’s strung out on the respect he thinks he’s earning

But he doesn’t know that soon he’ll strike out

For he is on his final innings

 

What will he do when you cease to knock on his door?

And he’s left to contemplate how he’ll spend his eternity

Where the eternal furnace becomes as natural as air

No, as a mother I can’t look down and just pity his soul

But yet I’ve felt as if I’ve tried every avenue

To lead and hearken him unto your understanding”

 

She continues to plead her son’s case with her tears as her witness

But even her tears can’t wash away his sins

But the Lord pities her

For he knows her dedication to him, his will and his commandments is beyond reproach

 

So he promises to her

He will not give up on her son

Oh if only the youth

Know the emotions they evoke in their parents especially their mothers

Who carried them for almost a year?

As they see them as their gift from God

Only to see them act as if he doesn’t exist

 

But the Lord will not take his life

Nor depart from his soul permanently

Though his actions has separated families and friends

With bullets that were sprayed with no conscience

Never allowing the souls of these people

To repent for the sins of their bodies

 

But the Lord knows her penance

Physically, emotionally and spiritually

And being merciful in being

He dries her tears with his response and comforts her with his word

Reassuring her and renewing her faith

 

Her tears has resumed but it is no longer for her son’s soul

But for the fact that the Lord has granted her only wish

And her prayers are answered

The rock she has learnt to lean on all these years ago

Has remained sturdy and steadfast as ever

Even getting stronger with the passing of time

Hopefully her tears can flood the impurities in her son

And cause him to live a life she can be proud of

And allow her some company as she watches out the end of her mortality.

 

Editor’s Note: Wired868 has been authorised to publish poems from Voices from the Ghetto for readers. We urge you to purchase an online version of the book  from Amazon by clicking HERE.