no more than the bird with the piercing voice

I’m a mother-side caroler I stay by her side always

I start my warbling when she’s sleeping stress away

I have so much to sing about but mom wants no fanfare

Just wants her banana and to have her daughter there!

I’m a mother-side caroler don’t know what else to be

Best way to honor Father is to take care of her needs

May never know which came first the chicken or the egg

But we know for sure mom gave us birth and tucked us into bed!

My mother loves me will not let me leave her side

Just like Ganesha I found the shortest ride

Just go round the mother and serve her lovingly

Before you know it She dries your eyes and sits you on Her knee!

Oh, I’m a mother-side caroler do I really have a choice?

No more than the bird with the piercing voice

At the end of my days when I go round the bay

Listen!    and you will hear true

I have not gone away I’m singing today and I will still be warbling to you!!

Inspired by caregiving for my 98 years young mother and Sappho fragment #30 ‘no more than the bird with the piercing voice” (drawn from the book If Not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho, trans. Anne Carson, Knopf, 2002.)