Mothers Settle For Bones

Mothers. They are not trending because they don’t have social media accounts. But the sun never sets in their kids’ eyes for many reasons. Mothers watch them eat, knowing full well there’s nothing left in the pot for themselves.

Tampopo, a Japanese film is a comedy, but the most painful scene is a starving family waiting for the father to come home. He rushes in, gives his wife the little food he was able to hustle. She is thin as a rake, obviously very sick, but gets up and tosses something in the frying pan. She watches her husband and the kids eat with a smile on her face. She slumps and dies.

Mothers suck bones because they give the best chicken pieces to their kids. They give them all the rice and eat the burnt stuff in the bottom. They divide one orange among kids and don’t set aside a piece for themselves, because there’s no piece to set aside.

Mothers go to moneylenders so kids could go to universities or cities to try and harvest money supposedly growing on trees. Mothers answer the police call to go and identify bodies of sons and daughters, killed by the belief that money can be enough.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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