We kissed on the brink
of catastrophe
(so please don’t think
you have to look after me).
You were a holy man
With the spirit of a child
When I surrendered,
Barefaced, beguiled.
I didn’t have a choice.
Then you gave me words
But you took away my voice.

How many sleeps before
we may sleep spent?
Stricken but not ill,
Waiting for the sounds of the city,
Waking but sick still.

Reflected apparent.
A tilted eye shows long
Stupefied sadness.
And the nose, swollen where it oughtn’t to be
Squats bulbous and surrounded by age.
Coated in a fine craquelure
That won’t be restored any time.
Somehow the working of a smile forces
Furrows deeper.
There is no wisdom in the life you forfeited.
And the pain is reflected in my own record.
My image made weaker in your likeness.

The mothers who I’ve come to know
I’ve seen the distances you go.
And through the years, the laughs, the tears
We've helped each other grow.

We gripe and groan about our post
The endless everyday;
The laundry and the Sunday roast,
The hair that’s going grey

For motherhood is tough.
It is a love that paralyses.
It is selfless and its rough
And full of sacrifices.

I’ve leaned on you to see me through
When I’ve been overwrought
You’ve taught me things I felt I knew
And changed the way I thought!

Thanks for helping me endure
The coughs and sniffs, the cuts and blisters
And the confidence you’ve helped restore.
You aren’t just mums. You are my sisters.

Today the unsteady ground
Hit me with the scent
that only summer brings.
Stumbling into morning
It rose like steam to baptise.

How many sleeps before
we may sleep spent?
Stricken but not ill,
Waiting for the sounds of the city,
Waking but sick still.

How dull
to be bland in disposition;
Rice pudding and careful cast.
To rarely utter opposition;
Never seeming rude or crass.
Daily wake at half past life,
Run away the tension,
Drink away the strife.
Learn the lines, keep within their border;
Domesticity, Jones, Smiths and order
Played out on a stage of lies.
When did your part smile without the eyes?
Look sideways in the stalls before you clap.
But just once try and go without a map.