NaPoWriMo – Page 22 – Generous Wisdom

pride and screaming

I stand in the hallway

screaming from my roots –

one long screech from the four corners of my feet, from my pelvic floor, from the tips of my fingers.

My two-month-old sleeps

in her bouncey chair not five feet from where I stand.

My 23-month-old kicks and scream-cries behind her closed door on my right.

My 6-year-old plays in his room on my left.

And my husband leaves work

to drive to the city where he stands at his mother’s hospital bed.

There is nothing pretty here.

My breasts leak milk

and my post-partum belly hangs

deflated over my waistband.

I call my mom;

I pack diapers, wipes,

bottles, formula,

breast pump, nursing pads,

clothes, toys, a sippy cup,

and buckle the kids in their seats.

We drive two hours north east

and meet my parents at my sister’s house

where everyone takes care of my babies

and I sleep.

Screaming cracks the bricks of my independent facade

and I ask for help.

Help is beautiful.

our two-year-old runs
to me, her bare feet smacking
the hard floor. Smiling,
she asks me, “may I watch a show,
when it’s time?”

She runs away and runs back,
“May I have chocolate,
when it’s time?”

And again, “may I play on your phone,
when it’s time?”

I answer yes, yes, and yes,

and then I pray
to have her kind of
happy, confident faith
in the fullness of God’s time.

Who am I

to be blessed with a baby

who loves grapes;

and me, with legs and feet to stand,

hands and fingers to work,

eyes to watch and ears to listen?

The juice runs down between my fingers

as my knife works. It drips from my wrist onto the white plate

where I wipe the purple skins and quarter the fruit.

Who am I to be blessed with the Time to stand here

peeling grapes?