Echoes, ‘Mom, this and Mom that’
sounds weightless against walls
where once was heard
continuous scuffling and playing
of two little boys.
Beeps, electronic sounds from
the Atari,
kissing overworked video thumbs well.
Years pass, boys in
more years, boys out
following mine
staying all the time.
Trials and tribulations only a mother knows;
sitters who couldn’t sit
overtime
sick time,
broken bones,
football uniforms,
‘No cleats in the house!’
Being met at the door on a cold December birthday, 
tears stinging my eyes as little hands anxiously push a plate of
popcorn and pancakes
towards me.
Hugging
squeezing
loving, ‘I’ll never let you go!’
A father’s day card to a ‘special father’
because I was the only one they knew.
Echoes, 
only echoes
years went by 
too fast!
Gone,
like my sons
left with only echoes of memories,
scuff marks in strange places,
heartaches and tears,
it all went too fast
and it ain’t never,
never
coming back.
In my minds eye,
I’m still hugging
squeezing
loving 
though I had to let go.
Enough echoes
to last a lifetime
in this vacant
mother’s heart of mine.
 
This is a revised version as of today.  
The original version was published in "Whispers Online Magazine for Women" in November 1999