A mother takes a brief break from her household chores of washing clothes and cooking, removing her apron and relaxing in the midday sunlight. She imagines herself as more than just a wife and mother, taking on roles of woman and occasionally whore as she stretches and affirms her individual identity separate from her family. However, her moment of respite ends when she remembers the roast burning in the oven and her family calling out for her, and she hurriedly rushes back to her duties as wife and mother.

1. MOTHER’S BREAK
"...warmest noon when she feels breathlessly
Wedged between sink and bed, she rips off
Apron and womb to strike a regal pose
Under the infinity of strings of wash.
Drenched in midday glow, her colors show
Beyond her husband’s myth—wife, woman,
Whore at times—but she is real now!
Stretching back and life in her thin house gown
Which missed its print of roses long ago?
She affirms her non-frictionless
To sunlight, she sniffs rather airily,
And stamps her foot, perking up her ears
To hear the earth resounding—oh, but
The roast is burning, and the youngest
Howling above the husband’s hungry call!
How well they learn their cues, she sighs,
Flushed roses suddenly and hurrying,
Approved with her womb again, she rushes back
To them, to all of them auditioning for love..."