My mother was born on Valentine’s Day. Yesterday was her birthday. My mother loved February because she shared her birthday month with two daughters.
Yesterday was my mother’s birthday but she was not here to celebrate… I could not give my mother a present – but each year I wrote her a little poem for her birthday so here is your birthday poem for this year, Mum…
This Year
On my smart phone this morning
a message:
Yvonne’s Birthday Email Guests
and yes … tomorrow it is
your birthday but this year
I can’t deliver my carefully chosen
gift with a handwritten verse in
the card. This year I can’t see your
face (feigning insouciance) but
delighted to receive words about
yourself. This year we won’t gather
around a table in a Chinese restaurant
with you bossing the waiter in
Cantonese and ordering the most
expensive dishes … two of each…
This year there will be no fancy
gateau from a patisserie in Bondi
(to celebrate three February
birthdays),
no loud arguments and children’s
laughter, no stories about your
life then and now –
This year I stare at my not so smart
phone reminding me that there
is no need to email the guests…
© Anita Patel, 2019
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Published by anitapatel
Anita Patel is a writer (and retired teacher) who has lived in Canberra since 1982. She is as Australian as a banana paddle pop and a pair of sandy thongs and she is also a part of the Asian diaspora. Her collections of poetry are: 'Petals Fall' published by Recent Work Press in 2022 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/petals-fall) and 'A Common Garment' published by Recent Work Press in 2019 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/a-common-garment/).
In 2019, she collaborated with acclaimed artist, Annie Franklin, to produce 'Heart Stitched' (a story - in paintings and poetry - of the quirky, unexpected and dazzling layers in the natural world). They received significant support from Nancy Sever (Nancy Sever Gallery). In 2022, their second book 'Grief and Beauty' (which arose from the 2019-20 bushfires) was published - once again with support from Nancy Sever.
She has had work published in the Canberra Times, in Conversations (Pandanus Press, ANU), in Block 9, Burley Journal, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Demos Journal, Mascara Literary Review, Not Very Quiet Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Backstory Journal, Other Terrain Journal, Pink Cover Zine, FemAsia Magazine, Plumwood Mountain Journal, Eucalypt: a tanka journal and Print Issue 42 of The Blue Nib Journal. Her work is also included in the following anthologies: The Australian Poetry Anthology (Vol. 8), 'This Gift This Poem' (Puncher and Wattman) and 'What We Carry' (Recent Work Press). Her children’s poems are included in an anthology 'Pardon My Garden' (Harper Collins). Her poem “Women’s Talk” won the ACT Writers Centre Poetry Prize in 2004 and her poetry was selected for and published in Australian Book Review’s States of Poetry ACT, 2018.
She has performed her work at the Canberra Multicultural Festival, Poetry on the Move Festival, Noted Festival, Floriade Fringe Festival, In Other Words Festival (at Lost in Books, Fairfield), the Queensland Poetry Festival, the National Folk Festival, at Smith’s Alternative, at Word in Hand (Glebe) and La Mama Poetica.
Her reviews, “Found in Translation”, on the performances of four Japanese women poets and their translators at Poetry on the Move Festival, 2017 and “No More Silent Waiting”, on the anthology Autonomy edited by Kathy D’Arcy (2018) have been published by Not Very Quiet Journal. She was the guest editor for Issue 2 of Not Very Quiet Journal. View all posts by anitapatel
teapotsandincense 
A sad reminder of precious times now in the past. Sending love w
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Thanks so much…
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This is extraordinary. Just today I was teaching a group of women about crone and death. The loss of relationship in one form. and the transformation of relationship to another form…..I love how you love your mother. xxx
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Thanks so much dear friend. The mother daughter connection is a complex one. Losing my mother has made me realise so many things about myself and my relationship with her…Love to talk to you about crone and death…x
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