A Mother’s Plea

By Louise Gulbransen

For twelve long years I was a wife
With mate to shield me from all strife,
Blest with the gift of motherhood,
The greatest gift bestowed by God,
Those rosy, bright-eyed boys and girls,
To cheer me with their wiles and curls.

Then came a tempter to our home,
Upon destruction bent,
And called to aid some fiends on earth,
And willing hands they lent.
Without remorse they planned and fought
To overrule what God had wrought,
And knowing this, there still are some
Condone the work that they have done.

No friend unto the rescue came,
As undisturbed they played their game,
Love, honor perished, reason died,
As my companion left my side.
Crushed, wounded, friendless, then alone,
The fiends at last had wrecked my home,
And satisfied they then returned
To steal from me the prize I’d earned.

And years of sacrifice I spent
On treasures thus from heaven sent
Yet without mercy they have torn
Those gifts with suffering I have borne.
Mercy and justice God gives men,
Deny them this, what happens then?
Can this be justice? will you say
That now there is no other way?
Then you this measure must receive,
Since you deny me in my need.

Shall motherhood be thus denied,
Her love of offspring cast aside,
Did Jesus only die for some,
Denying others what they won?
Unfeeling souls, restore to me
Those gifts by Heaven decreed to be
Mine for time and all eternity.

Or must I suffer still and wait?
If so, what then will be your fate?
Have God’s commandments come to naught,
His teaching in your life forgot?
The greatest law you put on shelf,
’Tis “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

(1922)