Imitating B With A Laptop Bag On Her Head & A ‘Phone’ (23rd August 2024)

 

A telephone

Made from a piece of fence

And two blocks

Held up to an ear

But I hear nothing

I talk into the bottom block

Nothing is getting through

Who am I even calling?

An identical phone

Is lifted by a four-year-old’s hand

She shouts Mãe, it’s me!

Who is me?

Me is the inventor

She made these phones

And she will call when she wants

She calls L

L says she’s working

It’s the product of a long season

Of me looking after two kids at home

While working at a computer

And when they want their Dad

He is often working too

The guilt of motherhood

Perpetuates in the summer.