First Unbroken Sleep
After four and a half hours of unbroken sleep
I feel like a swan
The ‘trying to conceive’ web forum
recedes into my past, where every missed period
was a cause for dreams
and good lucks were “baby dust!” with
rotating star gifs
Good luck wishes in the new mom groups
are ‘sleepy dust.’
These women who parted Red Seas to look
into small slate-gray eyes,
on their seventh day they want to sleep.
While for me, filament-thin sprays of milk arc
& lie on my daughter’s eyelids
as I cajole her awake.
Seven weeks in the amusement park,
seven weeks sleeping in the operator’s booth
waking to my baby whining
in her sleep,
my shirt a wet hood
over two fawns’ faces.
About the Author
Anna Laura Reeve is a poet living and gardening near the Tennessee Overhill region, historic land of the Eastern Cherokee. Previous work of hers has appeared or is forthcoming in West Trade Review, Jet Fuel Review, Humana Obscura, Fourteen Hills, and others. Her chapbook Re / Wilding was recently a semifinalist for the Wolfson Chapbook Prize. Read more: www.annalaurareeve.com
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