A mother's battle

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a 5, more of a note of support. 1 note, avoid summation endings in poetry, what can be unsaid, is better unsaid, do you need:
Tired and worn, yet my battle's hardly begun.
?

There's drama here. I think longer lines would have created a greater sense of a frenetic climax at the next to last line of the first stanza, which I think was your intention. The repeated line breaks slowed that down for me. Still a good read.

it's been a tough day

for throats and for poetry, but your poem is very touching. I can't say I know how you feel, I don't, but I can offer a hug. I'm sure you are a terrific mother and he is lucky to have you.

~ maria

~

Agree with twelve about the summation. That being said I really liked and related to this poem. I have an autistic son who did all these things when he was little and at twelve still rocks and flaps. It gets easier as they get older.

a difficult subject

i think you captured the frantic activity really well, bulltlr - it was tiring to try to imagine, that and the sound...

'Biting his fingers' and the idea of the criss-crossing motion were quite mentally shocking to me. so this has impact.

i honestly felt it came to a natural conclusion with a last line of

He's back - but for how long?

that makes a powerful ending, in my opinion.