Tulia, a poem and Detention Diaries by John Bernard Coventry Poet Laureate 2023 - 2025 - Print version

My mother’s tongue effortlessly danced

With the syllables and rhythms of her mother tongue,

Her voice, gentle like whispered secrets,

Revealed a depth of love.

Words gracefully composed;

I heard melodies when she spoke,

Symphonies of hope as her gentle cadence

Loosened the burdens of the world.

Life and death are in the power

Of a mother’s tongue,

A child’s heart can be cradled, crumpled, cut,

Or caressed by the choruses that their mothers sung.

Today, the waters were troubled

I struggled to stay afloat,

My legs barely kicking,

My arms fatigued from the pressure of the current.

In desperation, engulfed by the waves,

I called her name and waited and waited.

I eased my eyes shut,

Just as one closes a book, its story completed, never to be revisited.

My mother told me to speak,

And in that moment, I froze,

Home has always been her voice.

Detention Diaries by John Bernard