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Babies are the New Black (8)

Babies are the New Black (11)

Antithetical Physical Empathy at my Desk

Oceanography

Babies are the New Black (8)

He said he wanted 5 kids
and when I couldn't stop laughing
he broke up with me.
Lately I wonder if maybe
I should have considered it,
but what's that phrase?
It's just a lot of babies
under the bridge.

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Babies are the New Black (11)

I want to be like Coco Chanel—
fabulous constantly.
I don't have time
to mother anything.

She would say that a baby
makes a terrible accessory.
I'll make new purchases
and breastfeed them.

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Antithetical Physical Empathy at my Desk

Bernie's cousin lost her baby—
asphyxiated by the umbilical cord.
I eat pineapple chunks
and read the e-mail. Feel around
in my mouth with my tongue.
It's hard to fathom something dying
inside of me. The sudden stillness.
I keep chewing because my body
tells me to, and file the e-mail
in my personal folder.

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Oceanography

Flood my back tongue
with your ocean grit.
Whales move inside.

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SARAH BARTLETT lives in Portland, OR, where she reads poetry for Tin House and holds down a day job. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in No Tell Motel, Sawbuck, RealPoetik, Goodfoot, and LIT. Sarah and Chris Tonelli have a forthcoming chapbook, A Mule-Shaped Cloud, due out from horse less press in January.

EMILY KENDAL FREY grew up in Seattle. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in New York Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Sawbuck, Unpleasant Event Schedule, Shampoo, Mudlark, Word For/ Word, La Petite Zine, Coconut, and RealPoetik.