mother in a Refugee Camp by Chinua Achebe
Mother in a Refugee Camp by Chinua Achebe No Madonna and Child could touch Her tenderness for a son She soon would have to forget… The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea, Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there Had long ceased to care, but not this one: She held a ghost-smile between her teeth, And in her eyes the memory Of a mother’s pride… she had bathed him And rubbed him down with bare palms. She took from their bundle of possessions A broken comb and combed The rust-colored hair left on his skull And then-humming in her eyes-began carefully to part it. In their former life this was perhaps A little daily act of no consequence Before his breakfast and school; now she did it Like putting flowers on a tiny grave. Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe was born in the Igbo village of Ogidi on 16 th November 1930. His parents’ traditional cult