The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Mother's Milk~ By Sonya Groves

12/25/2014

0 Comments

 
The day I brought you home,
I pissed my pants on the front porch.
You were in a plastic baby bucket
with blue plaid padding. Quiet, asleep.

I hoisted you up on top of a table,
the baby bucket rocking to a slow stop.
I sat in my wet pants frozen with fear.
What was I going to do with you?

Some relative walked in and shuffled
me off to clean myself.
I felt like an incontinent patient
at a convalescent home – not a new mother.

Cleaned and exhausted, I passed out in my bed
only to be awoken by crying.
Whose crying it was, I could not remember,
but alas my breast did not care.

My milk thrust down to the nipple
in waves of painful relief.
(This must be what an erection is like,
no wonder the release is divine.)

You wouldn’t latch, a tied tongue the culprit;
I really thought a rebel’s stand.
I attached to a milking machine,
a cow in the dairy to feed my herd of one.

I sat alone in the dark on my bed
with a plastic cup stuck to my breast.
The machine pulling, pushing, squeezing out milk
to fill the bottle, to fill the void.

Each minute that passed, the screaming escalated,
relatives rushed in a frenzy – hurry, hurry.
But just like giving birth to you,
the milk would only come in its own time.

How, within less than a week,
did my body no longer become my own?
My life became the puppet of another,
a matronly marionette.

The bottle finally full, my body mostly covered,
you were thrust into my arms.
Your face was red and blotchy,
the fruit of your cacophonous efforts.

I shoved the bottle into your mouth,
your eyes popped open.
You stared at me.
I stared at you. 


Author Bio:
Sonya Groves is a teacher of English and History in San Antonio. She has published a short story in the Abydos Education Journal, has poetry publications in La Noria, The Voices Project, and Aries. She has been a conference presenter at the East Carolina University Multi-Cultural Literature Review Conference. Currently she is pursuing her Master’s degree in English at Our Lady of the Lake University.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org