|| toys ||

Children grow

toys become small

the mother stores

the toys to touch

their leftover childhood.

As soon as the

children know the lie

of life hidden in toys

they leave home

in search of the

truth of life.

The mother looks

for their fingers

hidden in their toys

to forget the pain

of the separation

from the child

gone abroad she

kisses the toys

her children kissed.

Touching the memories

of her children left in

the toys she eases the

pain of her memories.

In her memories she

keeps her children's toys

and in toys her hungry

motherly touch thinking

the toys too miss her children.

Sometimes she puts

the old tricycle in

the forlorn garden and

remembers her children's

feet now in military boots

or trudging alien paths.

With her old eyes

the mother blessed the

dreamy new world of

her children's eyes

that is untouched by

tears of slavery even

now she e-mails to

them the magic messages

from childhood scriptures

and life - 'a slave is happy

not even in his dreams'

'love truly and thou shall be united

with thy love.'

As soon as the

children know the lie

of life hidden in toys

they leave home

in search of the

truth of life.

Leaving the toy animals

children set out to win

the war against the animal

hidden within men.

Abandoning toy planes

and cars
children leave in search
of a new life

better than their parent's

they had heard in their father's

heartbeat seen swinging

in their mother's eye.

(Painting : Milly Martionou)