A Foremother's Pain

My heart was taken for granted

disfigured and deceased.

my eyes were taken for granted

with them I watched your flowers turn into bouquets.

my ears were denied,

your passions, your pleasures, your power

did they hear.

my nose unremembered

filled with the air I breathe to our children.

my hands

Oh, where have they gone?

I have toiled and laboured

broken my back to give you a spine

but still, I am nothing.

an emptiness  you claim to have nourished

your riches, regal, respect

is nothing

in comparison

to my sweat.

lest I forget

with the thing between my laps

I give comfort and add to this borrowed name of mine

yet I am forgotten.

to you

and your children.

I am the lost piece in the puzzle that built our house.