'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' by Chinua Achebe
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea, * diction of
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs disease
And dried-up bottoms waddling in laboured steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there *oxymoron
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:* she stands out
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-coloured hair left on his skull * disturbing diction
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part
it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.* simile
The speaker contrasts the bond between mother and dead child with
that of the Madonna and baby Jesus, suggesting that the refugee
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea, * diction of
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs disease
And dried-up bottoms waddling in laboured steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there *oxymoron
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:* she stands out
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-coloured hair left on his skull * disturbing diction
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part
it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.* simile
The speaker contrasts the bond between mother and dead child with
that of the Madonna and baby Jesus, suggesting that the refugee
