Do I make the bed/do I still turn him on/fold the laundry/test the milk on your wrist/early hunger cues/15,000 murdered babies/and all you care about is why mine isn’t wearing socks/why is this the only option/tummy time/where did the time go/if you can give me an hour/I’ll fix dinner/I’ll fix our marriage/is today bath day/test the water with your elbow/the lyrics to our wedding song/every crease of my daughter’s body/you don’t need to hold her body/I don’t need a reason/happens to 1 in 4 women/what gets out a red wine stain/what percentage of alcohol/is in my breast milk/am I doing this right/Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s teammate thinks this is all I can do/don’t look at your phone/look at the baby/you are my sunshine my only/ is she asleep yet/is she breathing/students are never on the wrong side of/where did I put my sex drive/is it under the bed/no that’s just our taxes/another student overdosed/she was only 18/the murdered babies/I wish they were only sleeping/that I could tuck them all/into a warm, safe bed

~

Tharani Balachandran is the author of two poetry chapbooks, including Brown Sugar Skin, released in 2024. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and her work has appeared in numerous publications including On the Seawall, Anti-Heroin Chic and the Racket. Tharani lives on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples in Victoria, BC with her husband and daughter.