How much would you ask to be paid for a job where you never sleep —well, barely — and must be ready to entertain, cook (acceptable meals only), rotate laundry twenty-four seven, and keep the office —I mean, the home — clean and tidy? Would you do it for free? For payment in giggles, half-chewed kisses, and just to keep it interesting, the occasional full-body scream in a grocery store, or a tantrum about toast cut the wrong way? You need to be so wide a blanket octopus, stret

Dearest you You got more spots splattered Across your body Were they moles or freckles? You never knew But they’ve been with you Since you first touched the sun They’ve been ridiculed Unwanted Used as connect the dots Tiny Brown spots Were they skin cancer or beauty marks? The canvas they decorate Has also wrinkled With lines from different lifetimes This one you seem pretty satisfied in And your eyes Beautiful swirling coffee cup orbs Have they sat out too long Turned cloudy

Chanel No.5. Waxy lipstick. The clip clop of leather heels. Smell of my mother lingers since I was a little girl As an adult, I know my mother's scent A soft musk That I only get When I go in for a hug deep sighs and closed eyes a shot of hydration in the desert of passing time But as a mother, I see my daughter this radiant ridiculous joy and wonder Could she have been my mother in the faraway countryside smelling of manure mud, long blades of grass a hard days fragrance of

In this place there is no me. I look in the mirror and all I see is a strangersuffering. She lays in bed for hours, tending to a baby...

Depression I wore you once Like the blue dress my mother made me wore When I was a child Itchy Wanting to take you off But forced to smile and nod And perhaps I’ve worn you since Like when my mother fixed my hem A thread must have caught my skin And you got sewed in Years it rested a minor blemish Between my dermis  shielded me from connection growing a deep pain And when I gave life With a roaring cry A heavy black coat fell Draped over my eyes My mouth My mind  even my hear

Giving birth the hardest thing to do. I don’t want to hear it — “the newborn stage, the teenager phase, the terrible twos or threenager...

A mother’s love is like the sea. Yet even the sea can be rough Her waves do not splash evenly. Sometimes, they pull away, making you wade...

Before I had children. After I gave birth to two. B.C. and A.C. Was there a time before I became a mother? I don’t remember Not in the...

I pushed and pushed A scream that echoed to the depths of the ocean hand in my partner’s hand I felt a slither schloop and something warm...

In one single moment all a person’s cells and memories can detach and reassemble in another place, in another time. I’ve witnessed it....

My partner came to me Like a river finds the sea  But my children came to me Like a tidal wave to an unmoored fishing boat Suddenly...

Mama, I don’t know everything you went through but I do know it was a lot. And you had to fight just to survive. But look at you now. You...

The modern mother  is made of spaghetti She’s hard at work But soft at play Thin and long She bends in many ways Throughout the day She...

Made using Canva - featuring poems surrouding Motherhood, femininity, and identity.

Voices grow hoarse  Seeking for change There’s progress And then there’s tradition Written in the early mud banks  Where humans first...

Honestly, I was a mess. Tears round the clock except when I got some rest. Salt lined the edges, gathered into monumental crystals living...

Sorry Zara  I’m not a size small anymore My belly has grown and shrunk  Shifted and remade Held and caged  All My hopes and dreams It’s...

I danced around letters A to Z lost some characters in between developed some others unknowingly Most people have minds filled with neat...

Quasimodo was probably Just a stressed-out mother Back hunched, Eyes half-lidded, Balding, Styled like the peasants. Only the walls and...

When you pray, Is it to a man or a woman? I’m not religious, But lately I’ve been drawn to The synergy of motherhood A silent religion...