I am a working woman
working mother
working other –
see, I
tend to needs of all
until I fall
from sheer exhaustion.
Watch me drop
then up I pop
back up now
way before I’m ready.
Never steady
‘cause I’m
grappling with
all these different roles.
And yet I’m
told that I can have it all
and do it on my own
like the women who came before me
have so elegantly shown.
Except, it wasn’t really elegant;
the stress was under wraps
it was quietly bubbling
and deeply troubling
still, everybody claps
because no matter her anxiety,
she’s superwoman/mum;
she gives her whole self over,
she is never number one.
But if the working woman
mother
other
sees that she needs help
just give to her, freely,
Because she has limits,
really.