Lakshmi: Ode to my childhood maid

She lurks around in many childhood memories.
A familiar figure - now long gone.
She didn't stay to see where our paths would lead,
but she was there on the day we were born.

Her sun-roasted skin was a leathery black.
Her rhuemy eyes attracted flies.
Her glistening tears nestled diamond-like
in the black velvet folds around her eyes.

I remember those tears, like the gloom of the storm
on the day we moved, when we left her.
I remember those tears, like a sun-kissed shower
on the wedding day of my sister.

What dreams did she hug to her cough-wracked chest
as she hunched in the warmth of the sun?
Battered and bruised in the battles of life -
did she know there was one she had won?

She was Lakshmi indeed - the goddess of wealth.
Her wealth was love, which she gave us.
She was rich in a land of immense poverty.
We were her servants, not she ours!