Survive

Survival, that's what this poem is about. I thought about how my mother was sick and what I thought about how she must have felt. I thought about all she'd been through and what she had to do to survive. I thought about how I felt about my life and life in general. I thought about how I didn't care about mine was so easy to let it go and how she fought for it. She fought 'til the end.
And so here is...

Survive

When the disease shook her brain and breaths came in a strain she didn't surrender to the light. She held on tight, ready for the long run she thinks of all she's done. 

When her mother neglected them and chose her husband, she remembered what she did. She took care of all the younger and older kids. She put food in their mouths, cooked and cleaned the house She got them up and dressed for school as she struggled to go to work and school. She was twelve and all alone raising siblings while her mother was gone. 

Later she had two of her own and did her best all alone. When the rain came and without a penny to her name she embraced the hurt and made it work. And although she loved him she had no help from their father; her husband. But she had two beautiful kids and knew she had to make it.

Now, as the seizure shakes her brain and her lungs scream in pain, she holds on, dreading the thought of leaving them alone.

It would have been easy to take the bow. To stop breathing, she didn't know how. She didn't know how to die as the tears fell from her eyes, she fought to stay alive. All she knew how to do was survive.