May 2018
Cover
The kitchen ceiling
in the rented house
is painted red.
At night, hopped up
on diet pills, I try
to paint it white.
Both sets of parents
offer money
for new clothes
if I drop
the baby weight.
So, I stay up late
wear a maternity smock
to cover my gown,
roll coat after coat
of cheap white paint
over the bleeding red.
Husband, babies, lie sleeping
in their dark beds,
but everything in my night
is florid, bright
the whole world
back-of-the-eyelid red.
first published in California Quarterly
The kitchen ceiling
in the rented house
is painted red.
At night, hopped up
on diet pills, I try
to paint it white.
Both sets of parents
offer money
for new clothes
if I drop
the baby weight.
So, I stay up late
wear a maternity smock
to cover my gown,
roll coat after coat
of cheap white paint
over the bleeding red.
Husband, babies, lie sleeping
in their dark beds,
but everything in my night
is florid, bright
the whole world
back-of-the-eyelid red.
first published in California Quarterly
© 2018 Donna Hilbert
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