This selection, chosen by Guest Editor Maggie Rue Hess, is from Surfacing by Emily Tuszynska (Grayson Books 2024).
Maternity Leave
My husband brings the baby and a kiss
to where I lie in milk-wet sheets,
ripe as a pomegranate,
slick and sweet.
Hello, little slippery mouth, hello
my blind little fish, right here
my squirming one,
all searching lips and squinched eyes,
limp as soon as he latches,
cheek and eyelid beaded with milk.
Already the air at the screen
is heavy and still, the light tinged
green by new leaves.
Look at me lounging, an odalisque.
At last the baby heaves himself off
the breast with a satisfied smack
and lolls into a milk-drunk stupor.
I hear my husband’s car
pull out of the driveway,
and then the neighbor’s car,
the one with the noisy muffler,
starts up and drives away.
Everyone’s busy but me.
Emily Tuszynska’s first collection, Surfacing, received the 2023 Grayson Books Poetry Award and was published in 2024. Her recognitions include a Pushcart Prize special mention, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize, and PRISM International’s Earle Birney award, and her poetry has appeared widely in publications including Mom Egg Review, EcoTheo Review, The Georgia Review, and The Southern Review. She has been awarded a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers Conference and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Parent Residency Fellowship from Mineral School, as well as fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives in Virginia and teaches at George Mason University. Find out more at emilytuszynska.com.
Maggie Rue Hess (she/her) is a PhD student living in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her partner and their crusty white dog. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Connecticut River Review, SWWIM, and other publications; her debut chapbook, The Bones That Map Us, was published by Belle Point Press in 2024. Maggie likes to share baked goods with friends and can be found on Instagram as @maggierue_.
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