Michelle Brittan Rosado
Postpartum Ars Poetica I: Room
My privacy as small
as a strawberry
seed. I pick my life
from between
my teeth. I say,
shh, shh. And I recite
this poem in my head
11 times before
I’ll get to write it. I want
to be outside. Shh.
I can
only see narrow
columns of the purpling
sunset through
the vertical blinds.
Author’s note: The poems in this series all use the image of a window as their starting point, some in the title itself and others more peripherally. I’ve been thinking of this symbol a lot lately — as a portal for wonder in childhood, an aperture to others’ lives during the pandemic, a view of the world outside after giving birth and spending those early days indoors. These poems may not have come into existence without the invitation to contribute to The Fresno 15, and I am endlessly grateful to the MFA program for my years there and the deep sense of community I’ve carried with me since graduating in 2011. Thank you for reading and for supporting the Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship.
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