In a pinch-
With eyes always on
The hands, she’s checking me
For marks of the ‘real world’,
me saying,
I know I haven’t changed
These pieces since August
But don’t
Tell me I’m being lazy with it,
It just—
I know—
Don’t let her take you
To the hospital,
To the hurting with her watching
Too, catching the movie on
The couch tonight, right?
It’s the bulb-off-heat-still-
There underneath pulling of skin
When long nails are pressed
Against itch-full night bodies.
She’s been seventy hours a week-
Ing it and we can only say
Good morning and we can
Say goodnight, but is it
Not what matters that I sleep
In bed with you every night
And your puppy, on my stomach,
Four in the morning kicking, like
I am carrying our child and
I do not
Leave, I do
Not sleep in bed with her.
You carry a child, you
Take time to scrape burnt egg,
Or rice, ignored, spatula against a pan,
Four times a day, feeding
Mouths and empty washers.
I don’t even have
To pay for this family, and free
Family usually means free fighting,
I’m just.
by Emily Kraus
