Wnen Mama Said Good Bye Today

"Mama Said Good Bye Today"


I wrote this, for all the oldest daughters in the world who loose their mothers in preventable pregnancy related deaths; for those girls who loose their childhood as they take on the care of younger brothers and sisters and the household. I had hoped to capture the defiant independence of a young adolescence who could not possible know how quickly her world would change. It was written after a mother here in Haiti, died in the hospital of eclampsia related placenta abruption and hemorrage.

It is also written for all of us who never had an opportunity to say good-bye to those we loved and lost. For everyone who tries to remember the last moment they saw someone, what they wore and said and the look in their eyes when they said their final good-bye. For our desperate wish to re-write that final good-bye

When Mama Said Good Bye Today

When Mama said good bye today,

I did not answer back;

The porridge was cold and Jean-Paul cried;

There was wash to hang in the yard.

When Mama said good bye today

I did not answer back;

She turned to smile, opened the gate,

Walked slowly out of site.

When Mama said good bye today

I did not answer back;

Her dress was old and stained with blood,

I hurt to see her look that way.

When Mama said good bye today

I did not answer back;

Said she’d bring a baby home

"So please just all be good."

When Mama said good bye today,

I did not answer back;

Grandma screaming, aunties crying.

"Sweet Jesse, please come near."

When Mama said good bye today

I did not answer back;

Papa praying , the neighbors

Saying she died cause we were poor.

When Mama said good bye today

she took our baby too;

Bled and bled and bled they say

There was nothing they could do

When all the people left today,

I climbed my comfort tree

And there, amongst the wind and leaves

My mama whispered bye to me,

I felt her there alone with me

warm inside my heart.

And when she slipped away from me,

I could not answer her back.