A Mother’s Advice

HERMAN SUTTER

May 13, 2020

I should have known

my mother’s advice

would save the world.

Wash your hands, she said.

Cover your mouth when you cough,

she said. Stay home

if you are sick, she said.

And here I am, much too old,

finally paying attention.

What else,

I can’t help but wonder,

did she get right

while I was too busy to listen.

HERMAN SUTTER is the author of The World Before Grace (Wings Press) and a reviewer for Library Journal. His poetry has appeared in: Touchstone, Saint Anthony Messenger, Ekphrastic Review, Benedict XVI Institute, and By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville, 2019).   He received the Innisfree prize for poetry.