It’s a balancing act
\nBoth motherhood and the stairs.
\nWe teeter
\nTiny fingers wrapped around grime
\nCovered metal bars.<\/p>\n
You don’t touch those
\nYou touch the rail
\nBut the rails eludes her,
\nEven on her tippiest toes.
\nAlso, the choice:
\nGrime or germs.<\/p>\n
My hand grips hers
\nMy other arm lugs.
\nUsed to lug a red wagon
\nCanvas and steel frame
\n30 pounds of steel shooting messages
\nThrough my arm muscles
\nStraight to my brain
\n“Are you stupid?”
\n“No really, how stupid?”
\nMessage received.
\nBetter knock it off before that arm is off limits for a week.<\/p>\n
Now it is some food up number
\n11 pounds.
\nOk.<\/p>\n
You guys got this. <\/p>\n
Don’t fall backwards.
\nYeah, thanks brain.
\nNo really, if you slip back you are dragging her with you.
\nI go upstairs dozens of times a day.<\/p>\n
Sludging
\nSlogging
\nSighing.<\/p>\n
I never fall back.
\nBut the fear makes me obsessed.
\nGod, her hands need a wipe.
\nShe must be obsessed too
\nWith the possibility
\nOf the worst.<\/p>\n
Swipe and repeat.
\nMore stairs
\nEverywhere.
\nEvery station
\nAt my house.<\/p>\n
At times I walk miles.
\nHalf a mile sure.
\n1 mile ok.
\nHell, up to three.<\/p>\n
Sweat glazing my face.
\nBlisters staking claim on my big toes.
\nWorn area skin where sandal strap eats flesh.
\nBlurry eyes from saline drips.
\nAll that
\nTo avoid another damn climb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s a balancing act Both motherhood and the stairs. We teeter Tiny fingers wrapped around grime Covered metal bars. You don’t touch those You touch the rail But the rails eludes her, Even on her tippiest toes. Also, the choice: Grime or germs. My hand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[4189],"class_list":["post-107591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts","tag-poem-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107843,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107591\/revisions\/107843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}