Today You Are Four Months Old by Emily Patterson

and I am existentially / tired. It is early / November
in a church basement where I voted for our next
President. I have new / glasses; I can see the teeth
on the Japanese maple leaves, red against / blue
sky. Motherhood has me / constantly searching
for firsts: / laugh, tooth, stretch / of sleep
long enough to hold uncharted / dreams.



Emily Patterson earned her B.A. in English from Ohio Wesleyan University--where she received the Marie Drennan Prize for Poetry--and M.A. in Education from Ohio State University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Spry Literary Journal, Better Than Starbucks, Apeiron Review, Mothers Always Write, and elsewhere.