There is going to be another baby
She builds her eyes first
so she knows, from the inside
Little glass body that could become
her own enemy, infinite
pattern. When you are older
you will lose everything, too, even
the skin you have grown
yourself, you will understand
We don’t have time for the weather
to forgive us. Now she holds
the breathing world in her mouth
Now we are in these difficulties
There is no room to step
off to the side, just for a second
She doesn’t know all the trouble gone
to sleep, to white. Mother
eating herself, too weak to wake
A hunger is all we had in common
Every new shape is meat
or a mouth just beginning to open
*The lines “There is going to be another baby” and “Now we are in these difficulties” are borrowed from Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the Obscure
Danielle Weeks earned her MFA in poetry through Eastern Washington University’s creative writing program. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Crab Creek Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, and Salt Hill, among others. Read more about her and her work at daniellekayeweeks.com.
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