ALISON JONES, OXFORD, UK
Originally published July 2016 and republished with the express permission of the author.
Photos: Esther Edith
La Leche League
When I feel depleted,
give me a meeting with mothers,
like of mind, kind, with tea and snacks,
where no one attacks choices,
and challenges are met with gentle voices,
and choruses of “me too” and “this is what I do.”
Give me a room full of support,
away from a world
which thinks we ought to be different,
away from unrelenting media eyes
which disguise what is real,
and deny that our children feel
as much as we know they do,
where mothers who walk the same path stand
in empathic shoes, and say, “I see you and I understand,
and if you need, I’ll hold your hand.”
***
