My Mom’s Secret

My mom bears the chronicle of Nepali women 
in her rough hands hardened by time and 
in the wrinkles of her jittery countenance
She is a history never to be written
because nothing big happened in her life
When she had to get a toy to play with
she got a bridal veil and the in-law’s house 
where rules were made only for her.
There, she learned to listen and endure: 
Commands, slaps, humiliation, torture 
A good woman was a silent woman
A good woman begets lots of kids 
My mom was successful
 
My mom always nods her head in agreement 
because she has never disagreed in her life
She agreed to be bride when she was seven
She agreed all those nightmares of
her unwanted pregnancies
She agreed to be mother in her late teens
She agreed to be a legitimate slave to a house 
where a cat also waited for her service. 
Out of many things my illiterate mom learned 
was the meaning of the word battering
which meant “love” in her new house.
 
Blinded by that love long ago 
Now in her seventies,
she told me a secret that 
she wanted to beget only sons.

Narayan Bhattarai comes from Albany, California. He is a father of two happy kids. He is a lover of poems, songs and stories. At the age of thirty-two he decided to migrate to USA from Nepal. He loves wander in greenery. He is a positive thinker and a philanthropist. His poems have been published in a few journals and anthologies across the globe.

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