Your Mother – A Poem by Jamie Dedes

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Follower of David Teniers the Younger, 1610 – 1690 An Old Woman peeling Pears after 1640s Oil on canvas, 48.6 x 66.5 cm Bought, 1870 NG805 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG805

Submitted by Jamie Dedes

a tattered memoir in sepia tones
hanging on the wall of your office
a tiny plump sparrow of a woman
by a lone stone cottage
toothless, poor old thing
a warm shawl pulled to cover her head
an apron, worn shoes
from a time long past
from another world
my Turkish grandmother
what was her name?
you never said, i never asked


Painting: An Old Woman peeling Pears – by a follower of David Teniers the Younge

11 thoughts

  1. This so gently captures the truth we live as we age. I so long to know so much more about my mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. And of course my aunts but none of these women are alive. Your poem touched me in a nice way. I think that my children and grandchildren will someday think the same about me. Maybe my blog will help them to know who I am as a person.

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