Prose: Because

A different stream

1.

The air conditioner is leaking and it is 116. He sleeps on my right breast. Arm around the womb. Me. If I weren't a mother, I would be a bird. Missing feet. Roll on and on unless some sky. Unless storm. Unless shipwreck. No shore.

2.

Am I pretty? I stopped asking that when both of them walked into the room. Crow. Stink. Darkness.

3.

I smell his head bigger than my face. Brown. He doesn't know. Fly away, my bird. Mother will survive.

4.

Limp arm. Limp body. Limp dreams. And then, I am awake.

5.

Because love.