My Mother Wept (poem)

My Mother Wept

My mother wept when she read
the report from school
and it was years before
I found out why

She assured me at the time
it was nothing
a fit of sadness
not a thing to do with me
which wasn't true

but I didn't find this out
until years later
talking about something or other
not as mother and child
but mother and son
(I'm now in graduate school)
and something brought to mind
the time she wept when she read
the report from school

and so I asked her
what was it about?
and she told me

it was the results of
your IQ test

I'm married to your father, she said
so I know how it is
that the more intelligent a man is
the less chance he has
to be happy
and so I wept for you

and now so many years later
so much time since her passing
I realize how wise
my mother was

and I weep
for us both

--Charles Deemer