Ox Hunger
Mary Kovaleski
None of that now. Just
the steady plod of function,
back and forth between crib
and bed, baby in the crook
of my elbow and the winter
the one bulimic—
ice ravenous all night,
cold sun each morning
scrawls a nail file line
between curtain and sash
across snow knit fresh.
But that’s not right—
love’s just turned
from nude beach mêlée, drinks
all night and your mouth a paradise—
that desire, that devour, that purge and lonesome
to this midnight zone
of mothering.
I am
a boat moored and bobbing
we are feed and sooth,
we are totally in love
with the storm that will quit
before we even know its started.
Mary Kovaleski Byrnes’ poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies including the Four Way Review, the Hampden-Sydney Review, Poet Lore, PANK, and Best of Kore Press 2013. She is a lecturer at Emerson College where she teaches writing and literature, and is the curriculum director for emersonWRITES, a free weekend writing program for students in Boston Public high schools.
