[[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

PUTTING YOUR TODDLER TO BED THE NIGHT OF ANOTHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MASS SHOOTING  
[[link removed]]


 

Joanne Durham

Verse Virtual
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Poet Joanne Durham reflects on an uniquely American challenge of
parenting. _

,

 

Of course you don’t tell him, and he’s young enough,
he won’t know. So you laugh a little louder 
when he slurps his spaghetti at dinner, and let him 
dawdle putting away his trains. You trace the fine 
blend of flesh and muscle of his ears as the washcloth
slides behind them in the bathtub. You wrap him 
in his rocket ship towel, his pink child smell too sweet
to bear, and want to hold him there, grounded 
to this spot, forever. He lets you sing him 
the lullaby that sometimes he says is too sad, 
and you wonder what sad means to him. Your voice breaks
at “don’t be afraid” because the fear that is baked 
into being a parent clogs your throat. When he asks 
for a train song, you make one up about a distant whistle 
and watch his face ease into dreams
tucked safely in the caboose. You can’t call this leaden
mass that is your body grief−-that belongs to those 
whose bathtubs are empty tonight, whose towels 
hang dry and useless on their hooks.

_Joanne Durham is a retired educator living in the swing state of
North Carolina, where laughter is an important part of keeping up the
fight. She is the author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl, winner of the
Sinclair Poetry Prize (Evening Street Press 2022), and the chapbook,
On Shifting Shoals (Kelsay Books 2023). Her poems appear in Poetry
South, Vox Populi, Writers Resist, The Inflectionist Review and many
other journals and anthologies._

* gun violence
[[link removed]]
* school shootings
[[link removed]]
* Parents
[[link removed]]
* Raising Children
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit portside.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 



########################################################################

[link removed]

To unsubscribe from the xxxxxx list, click the following link:
[link removed]