A Mother’s Advice
i saw a young woman
crying into her phone
and i could hear her –
relaying her mother’s advice
she said,
my mother told me,
tell them to, ‘stick the job’
i thought,
that hardly equips you for life
the young woman,
her makeup is too much
and she is wearing the sort of clothes
you probably do not wear for work
but her heart seems good
i guess that is why she is so hurt
all her mother could say was –
walk out with your head held high
i do have to question that advice
as the thick makeup –
runs from the young woman’s eyes
the young woman looks at me
realising she is upset in public view
there is something lost in her smudged eyes
but i cannot reassemble the clues
she clearly cannot make coffee or tea
i heard say that, as she cried on her phone
it is so hard when the seemingly simple pieces
are all the jigsaws you are trying to be
and her mother’s advice
may be caked in a feeling of feeling alone
but as the young woman sits there crying
i am note sure the mother’s advice is enough
James Garratt – November 2013
More poems at
  https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/
More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/
More poems from 2013 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2013/
A Mother’s Advice – Written November 2013 (Aged 38)
