Played sweetly, wrap tucked tight
\nNoise dimmed
\nBut sound present
\nLong gaze of mother’s eye.
\nShort flash of a fire flicker
\nWarming the room
\nBreathing hot life.<\/p>\n
Same looks. Same wrap.
\nSame soft sound from tiny body.
\nFlickers from a screen
\nBlue light flooding
\nTo otherwise dark spaces
\nTempting mother’s eye
\nTo creak open
\nFighting back the gnaw of sleep
\nThe dull ache
\nNot yet
\nBit while baby rests
\nIn her arms.<\/p>\n
Across the centuries the picture varies
\nOnly in small fractiles.
\nLight sources.
\nSounds like sirens rather than beastly howls.<\/p>\n
The picture the same.<\/p>\n
But I wonder, future mother, great great granddaughter
\nDaughter in law
\nWoman yet to be.<\/p>\n
As you rock and soothe
\nSurrounded by fake light and white noise
\nAnd endless talking screens
\nWoman
\nWill you have scraped past the trauma
\nI carry now and attempt to beat down
\nAnd toss for scrap
\nDevoured by any hungry passer-by.<\/p>\n
Woman I fought, armed with therapy
\nBooks
\nMeditation
\nScented candles
\nSelf care
\nAll of it to keep the anxiety in my breast.
\nNot yours.<\/p>\n
But I worry future woman.
\nThat anxiety snuck
\nCrib to bed
\nGeneration to generation
\nSneaking and nibbling
\nBits of confidence and joy.<\/p>\n
I hope you sit.
\nBaby tucked
\nHaving eloped from these fears. But if not,
\nDear woman
\nPlease.
\nKeep fighting.
\nFight until the anxiety is tucked up tighter than the baby.
\nFast asleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Played sweetly, wrap tucked tight Noise dimmed But sound present Long gaze of mother’s eye. Short flash of a fire flicker Warming the room Breathing hot life. Same looks. Same wrap. Same soft sound from tiny body. Flickers from a screen Blue light flooding To…<\/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":[5015],"class_list":["post-109164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts","tag-poem-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109164","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=109164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109331,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109164\/revisions\/109331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}