Sunday, May 13, 2012

Poem of the Month:


In honor of Mother's Day (although it's never been one of my favorite days, as I've shared before on this blog). Still, I love this poem by my Segullah friend, Sharlee Mullins Glenn. You can find the original here

"Blood and Milk"
by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

I dreamed of Oxford . . .
(spires, a thousand spires, endless lectures, musty halls

a solitary self in a Bodleian expanse

A good life, my dear Wormwood. An orderly life.)

then awakened to laundry
and things to be wiped
(countertops, noses, bottoms)
How did this happen? And when, exactly?

Time flows, it flows, it flows
and there are choices to be made:
left or right?
paper or plastic?
blood or milk?
There’s freedom in the bleeding;
bondage in the milk—do not be deceived.
Ah, but it’s an empty freedom; a holy bondage,
A sweet and holy bondage.
Five times I chose the chains, those tender chains,
(though once will bind you just as well!)
and checked the crimson flow.
Suckled while dreaming of Trinity Term
but awakened, always awakened, to the laundry
and to that small and cherished captor at my breast.