Brothers

Brothers

By: Mark R. Slaughter

Now man-to-man 
Once child and child
At play
Beneath our mother’s aura 
Brothers bound in innocence 

Mother’s tearful reticence was 
Hiding in her smile.
Deeper hung the lead weight 
Heavy in her heart 

Oxidising 


The man she never mentioned
Slept between the beats.

We slept cuddled in the sheets.

We’d be older when she’d tell us that
Our father died at war 
The day the family ruptured; saw
The tired rings bless Mum’s kind eyes.

Now we’re grown-up brothers
Skirmishing with grown-up life
And still the aura glows, tho’ distant 
Dimmer

Mother knows we’re wiser, 
Tighter
In our brotherhood of blood.
We sense it; sense her, 
Sleeping
Comfy in the wood. 

Sumber: Poem Hunter