POWER

most of all
parenthood requires
endless batteries

for the vibrating chair
with its bright medley
of earworm nursery rhymes

for the mobile, Mozart
sparking synapses
while the baby sleeps

for the baby monitors
like walkie-talkies
which brook no reply

but when the gadgets
run down or fail
all we have are hands

voices, shoulders, breasts
running on power
we didn't know we had

Another in my ongoing series of mother poems. A bit lighter than the last one I posted (also lighter than the next one I'm working on) -- which is part of why I wanted to share this one.

I do find that sometimes I'm drawing on reserves of energy I wouldn't have believed existed. Some time ago I posted to twitter that parenthood wasn't for the weak; my friend Scott responded that while that was true, we would survive, and would discover that we are strong. I think I'm beginning to understand what he meant.

[power.mp3]