Emma Viktoria Travljanin

A weeping mother

The child of all stars is enjoying a midnight stroll,

But this was not the normal quiet walk the child of all stars was used to.

No.

Something filled the quietness that was usually present.

The weeping of a mother filled the universe.

The child of all stars was a sympathetic soul and so he approached the weeping mother.

“Oh, Mother Nature, why is your heart filled with sadness?” the child of all stars asked.

Mother Nature let out a sigh and stopped for a second.

“Would you really like to know?” asked Mother Nature.

“Everything.”

“Oh, child of all stars, if you could only understand what my children have done to my body.

I feed them with my body,

I give them shelter with my body,

With my soul I protect them from the rays of your mother,

I do exactly what mothers do.

But oh, child of all stars, the problem is not simple.

My children release toxins every day because they live with the simple lie that this luxury will last forever.

Oh, child of all stars, you may see brightness on me sometimes

but don’t be fooled.

This brightness you have seen is the burning of Australia.

There are a lot of sounds coming from my children but these are not the sounds of joy.

So, do not be fooled, child of all stars. The sounds coming from my children are the clashes of many people, the screams of dying and the echoing voices of my children who understand what is going on.

So, child of all stars, now do you understand the weeping of a mother and how it will be the death of us?”

Emma Viktoria Travljanin has always had a passion for philosophy and poetry. She was born and raised in Gothenburg but every summer she goes to her motherland Bosnia. Her parents came to Gothenburg in 1992 because of the war.  Emma studies economics and law at the Angeredsgymnasiet High School.  Had “A weeping mother” been written in Bosnian the title would have been “Uplakana majka”.