This poem is about a woman looking to her daughter with brown silky hair. It means she is beautiful. Sharon Olds is saying that this woman is looking at her daughter combing her hair in front of a mirror. The mother hair is not like the daughter’s hair. It is grey, Sharon Olds is critical of that woman because she is no more beautiful as her daughter. The reason is told in the poem that any women has a child must become old and no more beautiful. Life for this woman is hard and it has effect on her look. She will be weak and with bad smell not like young girls like flowers and perfume. The mother takes care of the girl and this must have very serious consequences on the mother.
At the end of the poem, however, Sharon Olds is telling that this is life. It has started like that since old ages, mothers and daughters, and daughters become mothers, and so on. Beauty must one day disappears.
