I was in the garden
planting new babies

kissing the many wet 
foreheads and testing soil

when my husband wandered
off he called us once

while I slept inside
the babies had grown

crunchy I said you are
husks of your former selves

I ordered more
cutting my favorites

from catalogues hiding
their faces up

in the envelope
under my pillow I

slept while it rained
for weeks under wet

cardboard the new babies
grew green and tired

by the door I held them
rubbing the grassy skulls

over my eyes

Millie Tullis

---

Millie Tulles is an MFA poetry candidate at George Mason University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Mud Season Review, Pembroke Magazine, Juked, and Ninth Letter. She reads for Phoebe as assistant poetry editor. She can be reached on twitter @millie_tullis.

Artwork: Sarah Ann Loreth
Website: https://www.sarahannlorethphotography.com/

 

31 Mar This entry was published on March 31, 2020 at 12:08 am and is filed under 41 (March 2020), Archive, Poetry. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.