Poem

My Mom wrote this poem shortly after Maya died. She recently won first place in a poetry contest with it. The grand prize is $500 and she gets to have it published! She wrote many more poems in the last year and I will post the ones about Maya this week on the blog. Keep checking back for more!


The Sorority No One Wishes To Join
They arrived one at a time,
bearing a casserole dish
or cake in their hands;
these women who have lost a child
came to console a new member.
The dormant debt of compassion
from their own past needed
fulfillment; and so,
with tear-stained cheeks,
those dignified,
Christic women enfolded
her in their arms – knowing –
all that could be done was
to come and to hold and to weep,
to shed their tears together
in compassionate relief.

When she’s ready, she too
will make initiation calls,
holding cake or casserole at
the door in her outstretched hands,
discovering the aching pain
for her child assuaged when she
graces another’s world of grief
with the inherent hope
her presence may bring;
then her pain will subside.
Giving freely what was freely
given, she pays her dues.
Once given the consolation
of shared grief, these survivors
go as God’s hands and feet.

~Tami Vrbas~
c. 2006