Remember whatever I told you
Mothers are always right, you see
We know what is really true
It’s a gift that’s motherly

We’ll bake you cookies in the morning
And then go battle a federal case
Then we’ll come back and do the darning
And help you undo a knotty lace.

We’ll help with your homework
Even if we have to guess
We’re never ones to give up or shirk
Even though it’s hard, we profess!

We’ve managed to do ten things in ten secs
And sometimes pushed it to twelve
We’re sometimes terrible nervous wrecks
Too tired to organize and shelve.

But altogether we’re a happy lot. Not so much when our kids come home high
And not when they come home shot,
Or crash the car and die.

Not so happy when the drugs come in
And the booze and the fast friends
We sit, drinking sherry and gin
Wondering to what are these ends?

We wonder if they know what’s right
Or if black leather and shaved heads
Have turned them from the light
And stole them from their cradle-beds

We wonder if the gang fights
Have caught our kids in a snag
It’s one of the grisliest sights
When they come home in a body bag.

We wonder how their kidneys are doing
As well as their livers and lungs and heart
Whether they are terribly ruing
That they can’t stop what they did start.

We wonder if we can comfort them again
Draw them back to their cribs
Take them away from a life that’s alien
To love and joy and prime ribs.

Sadly we wonder, very sad
For we always seem to forget
They were really ours to begin with
But now we only have them on let.