Heads up: Have a tissue nearby!
Shafika*
~©Lozan Yamolky
She was always busy her work was never done;
I’ve seen her go so fast yet I’ve never seen her run.
The list of her daily duties were tedious and endless;
even with disability she was anything but careless.
She endured his abuse and never rolled that dice,
she brushed it off as she searched our heads for lice.
She didn’t repeat ‘I love you’ much there was no time for that;
caring for us was what her love was all about.
We tried to follow the rules, breaking them, we didn’t dare;
whenever we were threatened, she turned into our mama bear.
All that ‘when you have your own children you will understand’,
I wish I knew what it meant, oh wouldn’t that be grand?
I appreciate what she has done fold over folds now;
when I try to do some of what she has done, I say ‘holy cow’!
I am a good mama because I learned from the best;
I hope no one is keeping scores, I hope this is not a test.
Let the entire world hear me, let them all know,
the love in me she planted continues to grow.
I love my mama until the day I die
I sure hope my poem won’t make her cry.
——— ~©Lozan Yamolky
*The meaning of her Arabic name Shafika is: compassionate, tender, the one that eases the pain
This poem was published on the online Royal City Literary Art Society eZine May 2017 issue. https://issuu.com/rclas/docs/may_2017_rclas_ezine_issue45 See link.
Graphics are done by our wonderful, talented and beautiful Janet Kvammen 🙂
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Published by Lozan Yamolky
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge that I humbly live on the traditional, unceeded territories of the səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) & xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Thank you for allowing me to live on your land —Vancouver, BC Canada.
I am a Canadian citizen who migrated from Kurdistan —Present day Northern Iraq, in 1995 after spending over a year as an asylum seeker in Turkey.
I was born and raised in Baghdad in 1972, I am the fifth of eleven children; three boys and seven girls –one brother passed away in infancy.
I am the author of ( I’m No Hero) and ( Counting Waves ) published by: Silver Bow Publishing. I am dedicating my third book of poems ( Dreamers Needed ) to my teenage boys, Trey, 15 and Wyatt, 13.
I started reciting my poems for the first time in 2013 at The Holy Wow Poets Canada in Maple Ridge. I am currently a member of the Canadian Authors Association, Federation of BC Writers, The Royal City Literary Art Society and the Holy Wow Poets Canada. I am presently the secretary of the Royal City Literary Arts Society. I work as a freelance interpreter.
I was commissioned in the fall of 2017 to write a poem about the refugee experience to DaCapo Chamber Choir in Toronto. The event will feature my poem “I am here” in spring 2019.
I was one of the recipients of the 2018 Distinguished Poet Award from WIN– Writers International Network Canada and was 3rd place winner at the 2018 Tagore Festival Peace Poems contest. Since first sharing my poetry in 2013, I have featured in numerous poetry events throughout the Greater Vancouver area.
My work has been published in The Royal City Poets Anthologies (Silver Bow Publishing), The Royal City Literary Arts Society online magazine eZine, Wordplay at Work, Creative Quills Ink Verse (North Vancouver), Celebrate Canada 150 and Culture Days From Far and Wide (Multicultural Creative Writing Collection 2017) and the 2018 Holy Wow Poets Anthology (Maple Ridge).
View all posts by Lozan Yamolky
Lozan Yamolky 