Rosalee van Stelten | Victoria, BC | LCP member since 2001

Mother Love

we must have been wild
things, running free
unfettered by her looseknit
mother love

toes curled like inchworms
we measured ribboned steel
on prairie edge, swung
from trees, played marbles
on skinned knees, sunset
hide and seek

scavenged lanes for dimpled
pots, castoff plates
the door we dragged
to make a summer playhouse
all this without constraint

how was it then we knew respect
for elders, when to offer seats
say please and thank you, stay silent
unless spoken to?

lessons
unfettered by her looseknit
mother love.

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Copyright © 2001, Pattern of Genes, Frontenac House, Calgary

* * *
Rosalee van Stelten is a widely published free-lance writer and author whose work has been anthologized here and abroad, produced on radio, included in gallery and private installations, and inspired a concert piece.  Her book, WREN: memories of navy days/ from royal yacht to quonset hut, was published in 2010.

 

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