until it is pure I circle the small white body
of the cereal bowl with my sponge no time to sweep
the fallen leaves from my bedroom floor
egg sacks slicked to their veins
let’s talk about pain
my daughter screams when I groom her
brush her hair her teeth clip her nails she screams this is love
I explain this is love from me
MRB Chelko is the recipient of a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship for Manhattations (PSA, 2014). A recent John Ciardi Tuition Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, she teaches in the low residency MFA program of The New Hampshire Institute of Art and lives in New York City.
