Mum

by Marc Carver

My mother used to reuse
The teabag
As much as she could
Get ten cups of tea out of that teabag
If she could.

She used to steal toilet paper
From the toilets
then she would roll them
onto the rolls at home
So they would not turn around
When you were trying to get the paper off.
The best days of her life
Were when
She would find a five pound note on the floor.

Now she puts the phone down on me
And hardly can string a sentence together
But I still love her no less
Then when I was a child
as  we used to laugh together
until it hurt.