Love is Not Enough

By Jodi Mata

Dear Period:

        Where are you?

        Your procrastination is giving me fits.

        Late days, late minutes each strangling my wits.

Dear Dave:

        Oh, you overheard me?

        Please, don’t take offense.

        I don’t see – pregnancy- as some consequence.

        You’d make a fine father with your energy alone.

        Manly embraces, a fun-filled home.

        But, what kind of mother would I make when I’d say

        To the Daddy of my daughter “get away from me today.”

Dear Heart:

        I know that you love him, deep and wide,

        But I’m exhausted from trying, I’ve tried and I’ve tried.

        We come together well when circumstances are rough,

        But then it goes back, and enough is enough!

        Such hard work is for a career,

        Such anger and pain and not wanted here.

Dear Dave:

        I wish I could love you how you long for me to.

        I know what it is like to love like that.

        It’s not that I won’t or haven’t tried.

        It’s that I can’t.

Dear Period:

        What kind of mother would I be forced  to be,

        When I tell my daughter’s daddy

that more than him,

        I love me?