Helen Kitson
The daughters-in-law
They were four laughing girls
who took away these sons,
roped them away from their mother
with a different language, sweet promises.
They have become soft-backed women
in gaudy clothes, cooking food
for family Christmases, tipsy on sherry
while the husbands snore.
She wanted boys, but sits in a room
full of women. Four different perfumes
cling to turkey-flesh and make her sneeze.
They blame it on her cats.
Each woman believes she is better than the others,
but Mother has the final word,
she can still them all with a rap
of her walking stick and the
photos of the girls who didn’t make the aisle.
The shared surname is an uneasy bond.
Each daughter-in-law has made a different pudding -
Mother tries each one, offering no comment
or congratulation; sickening at the taste of sugar,
each one sweeter than the last.
Page(s) 69
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