The poem describes the struggles that a mother goes through. The mother in this text is always available to fulfill everybody's needs, and she feels overwhelmed with all her duties. She feels she has no time to think and be herself because when she wants "a little room for thinking" she sees "diapers steaming on the line." The narrator says that the only time the mother finds to relax and be on her own is an hour while the child, Liza, sleeps. This is the only place that is "hers."
