An ESME Poetry Award submission
“Can’t Imagine” is based off people actually telling me they can’t imagine being a Solo Mom, as if it were like having a terminal diagnosis; it’s so interesting people just assuming it sucks when that’s not necessarily the case.
Can’t Imagine
I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a single mom
Translation:
I have imagined it a million times
and I am horrifyingly intrigued that my worst nightmare
Exists in you
Live
and in living color
Even more exciting than
the women I love to watch Saturday afternoons on Lifetime
While eating organic gluten free tortilla chips
and freshly made
Not processed
guacamole
Sitting in the middle of the media room
Amidst piles of unfolded laundry
How amazing it must be to live in despair and despondency
Please accept my offering bound tightly in silk
spun from my assumed superiority
Lean in
Expose the innards of your soul
And entertain me
Right
I should tell you my tales of woe because of course
I must have a multitude of them
I can’t imagine having the boldness to be so rude