THE SCRIVENER

Mother's Break  b y Merlinda C. Bobis "warmest noons when she feels breathlessly wedged between sink and bed, she rips off apron and womb to strike a regal pose under the infinity of strings of wash. drenched in midday glow, her colors show beyond her husband’s myth—wife, woman, whore at times— but she is real now! stretching back and life in her thin housegown which missed its print of roses long ago, she affirms her non-fictionness to sunlight, she sniffs rather airily, and stamps her foot, perking up her ears to hear the earth resounding— oh, but the roast is burning, and the youngest howling above the husband’s hungry call! how well they learn their cues, she sighs, flushed roses suddenly and hurrying, aproned with her womb again, she rushes back to them, to all of them auditioning for love.” Critique Paper Weary in the midday warmth, thinking of dozing herself off or continuously enduring a bustling bodyꟷa woman in so often constant activities. She is equipped for endles...