Lizbeth's Mother's Summer Morning 1961.

Her husband is at work

and her daughter

has got off to school

after the usual row.

She pours herself

her first vodka of the day

and puts on the Mozart record

her husband bought her.

Piano sonatas.

She sips the vodka.

Lights a cigarette.

Mozart speaks to her.

She stands

at the kitchen window

and peers out.

Beyond the garden

the fields stretch out.

Her daughter

said hurtful words

before she left.

The words hang in the air

like tormenting birds.

She would never

have said to her mother

what her daughter says.

She inhales deeply

and watches birds in flight

up in the summer sky.

Outwardly she stands

stiff faced and pale

but inside

she begins to cry.