A Door Opens (a poem for Mother's Day 2016)

A Door Opens

The bright day spills around the shades

drawn between the morning and the early afternoon.

In the darkened room,

the boy sits up on the bed,

naptime, tucked in, awake, waiting.

The door opens, a smiling face appears.

“See you later alligator.”

The face disappears, the door closes, a laugh is shared.

The game at the door is played between mother and son.

“After a while crocodile.”

Each open and close of the door

brings another laugh to share,

a smiling watch, an eager wait for more.

This is the playful game

of a mom and her five year old,

and how not to get a boy to take a nap.

There was love in your eyes

and you were looking at me.

I gazed back with the same playful joy,

knowing how much you cared about me

and how much I cared about you.

The door opens and closes.

Laughter and smiles are shared.

Playful joy and love fill the scene.

A look of joy across the room between mother and son

becomes a look across the years.

A gift you laid up for me now appears, fifty years on.

A gift you laid up for me is given today.

“See you later alligator.”

There was love in your eyes

and you were looking at me

with your gift across the years.

“After a while crocodile.”

When I was five and you were thirty-five,

with me at the start and you in the middle,

between the morning and the early afternoon,

with the bright day spilling around the shades,

a door opens between a mom and her boy.

So much love,

so much love yet to come.

Mark Bohrer

Mother’s Day 2016  North Andover, Mass.
Even though she passed away in 2006, just this spring my Mom gave me a gift. This is the poem about it. Happy Mother's Day to all moms everywhere.