Barbara Crooker: Praise Songs for Autumn
Each day, we must learn
again how to love, between morning’s quick coffee
and evening’s slow return.
Joseph Bathanti: Women’s Prison
we round up the kids and bundle them
into a restored salvaged Bluebird school bus,
repainted green, and make the long haul
to Raleigh where their mothers are locked
in Women’s Prison.
Kari Gunter-Seymour: A History of Fireworks
It’s July 1st. Whose idea it was to wait
I can’t remember, but me, my son
and two granddaughters, nine and ten,
are at the fireworks warehouse
Ann Fisher-Wirth: Empathy
In the long long bliss of the breastfeeding years, I belonged to that rocking chair where sun filtered through the window and the leaves of the summer pomegranate shifted slowly in the hot June air.
Alexis Rhone Fancher: Out of Order
Promise me, my sister says. That you’ll be there if something happens to me. I know she worries about the fate of her children if she becomes injured, succumbs to a virus or is killed in a crash. Anything’s possible, she says. For better or worse, her sperm donor’s out of the picture.
Heidi Gerard: Addiction Recovery Is Hard. Funding It Shouldn’t Be
I work with moms and kids on their recovery journey. Funding for centers like mine is woefully small compared to the need.
Emily Suzanne Carlson: Motherhood
I want
the officers to hang their shields
like wind chimes from the plum tree’s
branches.
Brett Wilkins: Children Dying of Starvation, Dehydration in Gaza Hospitals
The international community is facing a moral and humanitarian test to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said a Gaza Health Ministry official.
Corrine Clegg Hales: Her Husband Wants Her Back
Marge has run again, hiding out
at one neon motel after another
with her three small children.
Elizabeth Akers Allen: Rock Me to Sleep
Backward, turn backward, O time, in thy flight;
Make me a child again, just for to-night.
Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard: Nameless Pain
I should be happy with my lot:
A wife and mother – is it not
Enough for me to be content?
What other blessing could be sent?
