Boiled Motherhood

How well I remember the food
that I was served when I was young,
the soft texture of which
was meant to encourage me to eat.

I also remember Mother selecting stories
to tell me to keep me walking beside her
when I was young. Stories of her being single;
where the single life was a challenge.

When I look back I regret that I did not think
to ask her more thoughtful and harder questions.
In this way I played my part in our resisting
a more durable and deeper held maturity.

Motherhood was like over cooked food;
it was about making women seem soft,
the easier to make boys use weak reason
so as not to be a test to their parents.

Fathers needed their distance
to be seen to be 'the good provider',
and wives were often more resourceful
than anyone was ever admitted them to be
or little boys could begin to recognise.