Ode to Motherhood

Katherine Hoerth

June 2, 2024

After Pope’s “Ode to Solitude” 

Weary the woman, whose every wish and care

these days is this: a newborn baby blessed

with colic. She’s content to breathe the milky

exhale of his cries all night and day.

Whose home is filled with clutter, whose body aches,

whose clothes are stained with spit-up,

whose hair is ever-swirled into a bun,

who somehow still is smiling, drunk on love

or maybe hormones. Blest, the woman who

can absolutely never find an hour 

to herself, to shower or to sit in peace, 

as the days are ripped away from her,

and suddenly, a month, a year, have gone,

guzzled down the hungry throat of time. 

These sleepless nights, the feeding and the rocking

and delirium of joy all fade

to memories. Thus let me live, forever

needed in this world and never left

to rest in peace until he’s grown, and then

I’ll long to live these milky days again.

Katherine Hoerth is the author of five poetry collections. Her work has appeared in Literary Imagination (Oxford University Press), Valparaiso Review, and Southwestern American Literature. She is an associate professor at Lamar University and director of Lamar University Press. Her book, Pandora’s Prairie, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2025.