Motherload

Labored upon by Kate Baer

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She keeps an office in her sternum, the flat bone in the center of her chest with all its urgent papers, vast appointments, lists of minor things. In her vertebrae she holds more carnal tasks: milk jugs, rotten plants, heavy bottomed toddlers in all their mortal rage.

She keeps frustration in her hallux: Senseless chatter, jealous fangs, the spikes of a dinosaur’s tail. The belly is more complicated- all heartache and ambition. Fires and tidal waves.

In her pelvis she holds her labors, long and slippery. In her clavicle, silent things. (Money and power. Safety and choice. Tiny banquets of shame.)

In her hands she carries their egos, small and flimsy. In her mouth she holds their laughter, gentle currents, a cosmos of everything.