Get Born Magazine: Let Down Mary

Mary had her
breasts strapped down
breasts strapped down
breasts strapped down

Mary had her
breasts strapped down
to
dry up all her
milk

maid

easy

stayed

sixties-sterile
Lewis Carroll
lactophobic
formulaic
helter-skelter
mother’s helper
never asked her
simple matter
how she fed me
doesn’t matter

how
cow
come
now

I am Bessie
little messy
curds ‘n’ whey-out
wet spots marking
let-down leche
love my baby
nipples achy
no-sleep crazy

Mary had her
breasts strapped-down
to dry up all her
milk

and

now she sits here
with me sips tea
something-sixty

nothing hides her
sharp-eyed anger
rails against her

docs who pulled-a-
part her mother-
hood in pieces

dis-con-nect-ed

uterus in-
animate sus-
pended waiting

leche.

Let-down.

Let Down Mary
by Dona Jean Leonard
Spring 2007