‘The Woman Speaks to the Man Who Has Employed her Son’
IN OUR discussion last time, we stopped after establishing that the ‘son’ in the poem had no male influence in his childhood and possibly in his youth or part of it. His mother’s ambitious dreams are cut short when he becomes a criminal, toting a gun – a sub-machine gun. Now, this makes me wonder why this is the particular weapon that is chosen. Research will show you that this was at one time the type of gun favoured by the military, especially during World War II. The son, therefore, seems to be involved in a war, and we know that soldiers who are in active combat are vulnerable. In other words, while they are expected to carry out their job, they can be killed at any time. This is why his mother makes the preparation she does, for she expects his imminent death. Her concern is heightened by her knowledge that this is not a conventional conflict, but that of criminals against society. Her son, she believes, is in bad company, and has become a criminal.
Do you know the expression ‘knee city’ that is used here? The expression is very evocative, you know what I mean, don’t you? It refers to constant prayer, a practice of many Christians or believers in Christ who spend time literally and/or metaphorically on their knees, bowing before God as they take their concerns to Him or worship Him with praise and thanksgiving. This action on the mother’s part reinforces her lack of human support, her inability to influence the ‘employer’ or to change her son’s behaviour, as well as her trust in God. She believes that there is only one useful thing she can do and that is to go to God to seek His help.
Our culture is very evident in this poem. Here, the ‘woman’ says psalms for her son and reads psalms for his employer. Jamaicans believe in the efficacy/power of the Psalms. Many of us can quote whole Psalms or sections of them, all the while believing that we can get protection through them. Notice that the mother knows enough to say, that is to quote. Why then does she have to read some? What do you think? I am suggesting that those she reads are the ones in which the writers had asked for God’s punishment on their enemies. This suggests that while she is familiar with the psalms of praise and protection, she is not accustomed to those that call on God to hurt others.
We could take this a step further and use it to analyse the mother’s character. If she had been vindictive and bitter before, she would have tried to use those psalms against the ‘sperm donor’. As the stanza continues, we see where she is so very concerned about her son’s soul that she cries, for she is aware that not only his body, but his soul, is in grave danger. He is, so she believes, a murderer and is destined for eternal damnation. No doubt, she cries with regret and probably pleads for God to help him; for his link with crime to be broken. When she cries over what the man he works for is doing to him, however, it is with a different purpose.
The last verse is full of allusions. It starts with a biblical reference to Judas Iscariot, whose infamous betrayal of Jesus has guaranteed him a place in history. She compares herself to Judas’ mother. Imagine how she must have felt – the pain, the shame, the disappointment at her son’s deed! The mother in our poem claims similar feelings. She speaks of being in a ‘partner’ with Judas’ mother and the mother of the thief on the left-hand side of the cross, acknowledging that these three mothers have lost all that they invested in their sons. For her, it is worse than for the other women, for she has invested her all. She had given her son everything she had, as she was playing the roles of both mother and father. It is fitting, therefore, for the poem to close with the one word allusion ‘Absalom’. Yes, you may ask why and I will now send you to read about King David and his son Absalom in the Bible.
It is not my intention to spoil things for you by telling you the story of this father and son. It is enough to say that if you consider the mother’s position and her attitude to the circumstances in which she finds herself, you will have an idea of why she makes this allusion.
In the beginning of The Woman Speaks to the Man Who Has Employed her Son, the tone is conversational and the mood, while not happy in the beginning, is buoyant, This doesn’t last, though, for it soon deteriorates into disappointment and grief. The mood of hopelessness soon becomes evident and is underscored by a lurking sense of sadness and tragic acceptance.
It is easy to lose one’s way, if one does not have or does not accept good guidance. Take care and God bless!