Flashback Fridays: Working Mama Blues

me nursing in the classroom my first year of motherhood.

 

The fall semester started this week & I’m back to teaching. Reminds me of when I first went back to work after I had my daughter. To that end, I’m reviving one of my early mom poems.

 

Working Mama Blues

U reachin for me every time that I go
Lil brown starfish hand reachin each time I go
Ocean of hurt in my heart when I walk out the do

Grandmas lap is a warm safe place
My own mamas lap is a sweet soft place
But it ain’t good enuf from the look on yr face

When I get to the job work is backed up n late
Scramblin to teach class half prepped n late
Disappointin my students n making them wait

In the middle of class feel my milk letdown
Standin at the blackboard my breastmilk let down
Remind me that my baby on the other side of town

Wish I was in Sweden where they treat mamas right
18 months paid leave to raise a baby right
But Sweden’s too far and too cold and too white

Got only one body but two jobs to do
Got a part time body but two full-time jobs to do
In these united states of the working mama blues