A Child's Reply Poem by angelica dela cruz

Mother, do not cry.
Save your tears for
Tomorrow.
The world is full of pain.
You carried all our woes
And made them
All your own.
How heavy your
Burden is.
Yet you carry it willingly
And hide your tears.
But years have passed.
And a century too…
You can no longer hide
The ice in your eyes,
The stones on your heart.
How hard it must be
To give up yourself
To the whims of the womb,
And taste all the blood;
There was always blood
In every face you saw.
Mother, do not cry.
Though the sun has set
And stars slowly die,
The moon is there
As still as stone.