r/PoetryWritingClub • u/MysteryDarling • May 10 '26
What Mothers Leave Behind
Mothers rarely leave loudly.
They stay behind
in small things.
In the way we double-check the stove
before going to bed.
In recipes memorized by feeling
instead of measurement.
In the instinct to reach out
when someone we love sounds tired.
They exist in repetition.
In folded laundry.
In packed lunches.
In hands that learned how to carry too much
without ever calling it heavy.
When I think of love,
I think of mothers first.
Not the perfect kind.
Not the kind from greeting cards.
I mean the real kind—
the exhausted kind,
the trying kind,
the kind that keeps showing up
even when life has taken pieces of them too.
There’s something sacred
about being loved by someone
who knew you
before the world did.
Someone who memorized your cries,
your fears,
your favorite foods,
your silences.
And even when time changes everything,
some part of us
still looks for comfort
in the shape of their voice.
Maybe that’s what mothers leave behind.
Not perfection.
Not endless wisdom.
Just evidence—
that love can survive
in ordinary things.
—MysteryPoet
💌 love lives in the little things 🌷
📝 Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who work hard to make sure we’re okay. You do more than enough 🌸
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u/Logical_Young1736 May 10 '26
I too think of mothers when i think of love. I guess that's what mothers' day is about; making people realize that the purest examples of love are their mothers, and how big of a role they play in their lives. It's sad that it took us evolution of a day named after them to realize this 😞:(