I hate these
short dark
days of
unyielding winter
Postpartum
(postmortem)
body (self)
in various states of
decay
My life force
escaping out of
every pore
every orifice
All the pads
soaking me up
Little fish mouth
eating me up
There’s a long
night ahead
met by a cold
morning
My breath
hangs in the air
cumulous
There would
be a black sky
above
if not for
the pollutive
glow of the city—
behemoth
metropolis
of isolation
The Mother Myths
Our very own Zoë Etkin has released her third book, The Mother Myths, a collection of poems that explores what society tells us makes a “good mother,” and how those myths and narratives create internalized tension, self-doubt, and shame in new mothers. The poems in The Mother Myths span from the time of childbirth through the first few years postpartum, chronicling the tender beauty of this time, as well as the deep grief of lost identity and changed body. This collection puts the raw and real aspects of the postpartum period into the light for all to see, exposing what so many mothers go through in the Western version of parenthood. Any mother who reads this collection is sure to find a piece of her own experience somewhere in the book, and in doing so, knows she is not alone.
