Third Poetry Prize Winner - Winter 2013-2014

is 

Sylvia Behnish 

of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada 

“LIFE IS GREAT”

by Sylvia Behnish

As a young mother of five, I thought life was great,

Instead of joining the rat race doing work I would hate,

I stayed home with my children and taught them to be kind,

To love, and to share, and to care, and to mind.

We went on excursions I knew they would like,

We played games, we’d cuddle, and sometimes we’d bike.

Our home was a place other children came to,

And often the line-up was long at the loo,

A three-story tree house we had high in our trees,

And one day I counted twelve boys through the leaves.

The forts that they built covered the floor,

With hardly a path there was to the door.

And when it was bedtime, we made it a game,

We’d race down the hallway; it was always the same.

They’d beat me by a long, long mile,

But I’d give them a kiss and then I’d smile,

And say, “Next time I’ll win, you wait and see.”

They’d just grin their mischievous grins at me.

To stay at home when our children are small,

To nurture and love them and not let them fall,

There’s joy in a child and a friend when we’re old,

We reap what we sow or so we’ve been told,

When small faces light up with love for you,

Nothing is a sacrifice when we love them too.

Now that they’ve grown, the years seem short,

I miss their laughs and even the fort,

But what of those who don’t stay home,

Leaving their children, the world they roam,

The child they’ve missed and do not know,

Who never visits — Oh, the seeds they sow!

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