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Come Back, Come Back Down, Oh Mother!

by Nuggehalli Pankaja
(Bengaluru, Karnataka, India)

Rain came that day, the day you left.
Tears-like
Those drops of water-Raindrops resembling pearls
Dripping from your breast-Images of distress
Shaking the very firmament!
Were you grieving so very much
To depart
From your near and dear ones-the downtrodden?
In truth your heavenly abode is not there -Above,
But here, in the Charity Home raised by you-
Hear you not its wail - “Who is there to nurse, solace, attend
When we are in need? To heal when ill?”
Heart-stricken cry Amma,
Of one and all finding shelter –children of roadside. . . . .
What was the spell mother, which steered you
One unknown, across the sea far away,
To this alien shore?
Some Runa of past janma?
Or our Punya of this janma?
Whatever it be, comeback-come down,
Relinquishing your pedestal as Devi over there.
We want no Devi, but Amma-OUR AMMA!
Your true place is here, amongst us mother,
Not there, over there-or anywhere. . . . . . . .
Hear you not
The sky –breaking cries
Of countless lives calling you back?
OH MOTHER TERESA, MOTHER TERESA!
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(Meaning of ‘Runa’- -Indebtedness.
Meaning of ‘Punya’- Luck gathered through good deeds.)