Look at Her

 

 

Look at Her

 

 

Look at her.

Once those hands were slender, white and elegant

Now thickened, red and scarred so no longer enchant.

Yet those thick, hard, unsightly hands caressed and banished

Her children’s uncertainties so completely that they vanished.

 

Look at her

Once so slim and enticing that the watchers would gape.

Now that mature, strong, heavy and boxlike shape

Has the strength to clean, wash and work for her young

With pride in the way so much drudgery can be done.

 

Look at her

Once adorned so fashionably, swaying down the street

Her high heels tapping out a fast moving tango beat

Now shabby and slow moving in her slippers and apron

A reminder of poverty and age ignored by the young.

 

Look at her

Eyes so dull and short-sighted that she can only see

The stimulus of careers and education in absentee.

Yet those eyes can sharpen, become alert and attentive

 For food to feed yet another mouth always her imperative.

 

Look at her

Her children grow healthy, intelligent and without strife

Consuming their mother’s health, broken dreams and life.

And she regrets nothing, aware of that truth sincere

A future generation is more permanent than a career.

 

Look at her

Honour the choices she made to end so impoverished

With her dull eyes, her tired body, her life now finished.

All sacrifices paid with pride with no pain denied.

Like the female octopus, she too is forever satisfied.

 

 

Margaret Pierce

I was a sickly child and an omnivorous reader. This made for a harmonious and successful substitute for education, as I didn’t spend much time at any of the schools I attended. Launched on an unsuspecting commercial world as a stenographer/secretary I ended up as a copywriter in an advertising agency and took to writing instead of drink when raising children, completed an Arts Degree at Monash university as a mature age student and lurk in a small  flat in the Dandenongs still writing. I have had poetry, short stories and articles published and mostly primary and teenage novels as currently listed on Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle and writers-exchange.com