by Lynne Sargent
Your mother-in-law eats you,
chews you out for breakfast
as though it was you who stole her son, and his virtue,
though you were unconscious at the time.
This is a story she has folded into her bones.
She is not the first to play
at owning her child’s sex.
At dinner she puts you in the pot--
all meat, forgetting you are a vegetarian.
Still, you try:
You make her grandchildren,
let them, and him, suckle you,
keep them all from screaming.
You trim the hedges to her specifications,
and do not let the years,
or shelves, gather dust.
You keep his improprieties as concealed
as your wrinkles.
But she still asks
after your weariness,
suggests you get more sleep.
LYNNE SARGENT is a writer, aerialist, and philosophy Ph.D student currently studying at the University of Waterloo. You can find more of her work in venues such as Strange Horizons, Wild Musette, and Twisted Moon Magazine. If you want to find out more, reach out to her on Twitter @SamLynneS.
Beauty, Sleeping can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 2.2.
