Can you sum up parenting in a few syllables? We asked some members of the Brilliant & Amazing Writers & Mothers online writers’ community to share some haiku with us.
Cold hands grabbing me
Mummy, mummy, where are you.
I don’t know. Do you?
– Emalitza
Coffee. More coffee.
Remember waking up when
It was light outside?
– Kerry
Parenting fatigue
Toilet training, night waking.
Bad combination.
– Sophia
Yellow plastic pain
Lego interrogates foot
Up vacuum it goes
– Loretta
Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat
(Mummy says it’s called a dog)
Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat.
– Sarah
A pregnancy test
My eyes prick with tears
Such fragile early hoping
The earth holds its breath.
– Stacey
Someone is smelly.
Is it the dog or Pippa?
Oh. It’s both of you.
– Alexandra
How can so much wee
Come out of one little girl?
Where do you keep it?
– Jessica
The thing is, I can’t
Work out what to do with you
When you get like this.
– Liz
Strung out like washing
Exposed to life’s elements
When I need retreat
– Arihia
He holds me so tight.
Then he bites my nipple hard.
Smiling little egg.
– Emmaline
He is asleep now
I quickly cover my boob
A bra as armour.
– Sarah
1am. loud wail.
small toy, lost in tangled sheets.
found. held tight. silence.
– Jo
Reheated coffee
Post-breakfast baby sleeping
Simple luxury.
– Roz
A secret biscuit
Dipped in my lukewarm coffee
Thank fuck for cartoons.
– Dana
Coffee. School lunches.
Laundry pile. Grumpy teen
Morning progresses.
– Rebekah
Kindy time: the peace
The ache of missing them, too
Two parallel lives.
– Thalia
Can’t carve time for me
from block whittled by work kids
need more than sawdust.
– Sisilia
Juggle Mama work
Meeting email calls report
Balance not forthcoming.
– Helen
Loud cry fills the room
Lil hands and head seeks me out
Blearily I go.
– Kim
Marriage is trying
Not to lose it while you shit
60 minutes. Really?
– Helen
Considering if
It is acceptable to
School run in PJs.
– Kerry
So much exhaustion
Will I find the energy?
Yes, it’s in his smile.
– Linda
I hear baby cry.
Husband is rocking him now.
Please not my turn yet.
– Eliza
The day, mess, drags by
Greeted by, dark, hours doubting,
Did I give enough?
– Dana
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