![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/xocolat-atelier.jpg\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nby Kim Hooper<\/p>\n
This morning, I fought
\nwith my daughter about
\nher refusal to take another
\nbite of vanilla-flavored
\nGreek yogurt while, a world
\naway, other mothers fought
\nfor their children to live
\nanother day.<\/p>\n
On that small strip
\nof land, two million people
\nwait on death row, sentenced
\nto terror for the crime
\nof existing. Half of them,
\nchildren. So many
\nchildren. One killed every
\nten minutes, the headline
\nreads. The post below it\u2014a
\njoke about the inconvenience
\nof the end of Daylight Savings.<\/p>\n
Dawg it feel like it\u2019s 14pm.<\/em><\/p>\n I laugh and then wonder how How ridiculous that I am How ridiculous that I am How ridiculous that I am, Tonight, we will watch I will let my daughter sleep How ridiculous that I am, ###<\/p>\n Kim Hooper is the author of six novels, including\u00a0People Who Knew Me<\/i>, which was adapted into an episodic podcast from BBC Sounds. She lives in southern California with her daughter and too many pets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kim Hooper is the author of six novels, including\u00a0People Who Knew Me, which was adapted into an episodic podcast from BBC Sounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413,463,434,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-poems","category-poems-about-life","category-poems-about-mom","category-contemporary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\nsuch a thing is possible\u2014
\nhow can any human being laugh
\nnow, or ever again?
\nI am stressed about jury duty
\nand the Santa Ana winds making
\nmy eyes burn and the dog-sitting
\nI shouldn\u2019t have agreed to and
\nthe school closure on Veterans Day
\nwhen I have to work at my job,
\nspending hours on Zoom calls
\nabout how to better sell
\nexpensive beauty products
\nto women who feel inadequate
\nwithout them.<\/p>\n
\ncapable of stress when there are
\nno airstrikes here, no bombs
\ndropping like meteors from the sky,
\nwhen I have food and water
\nand shelter and the basic
\nassurance that my daughter
\nand I will be alive tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\ncapable of brushing my teeth
\nand taking my vitamins and
\nbookmarking pad thai recipes
\nwithout sobbing about
\nthe chubby baby arms
\nsticking out of rubble.<\/p>\n
\nwhen so many are not.<\/p>\n
\nFancy Nancy and lick popsicles
\nand I will tell her a bedtime
\nstory about unicorns and
\nmagic and think about
\nall those children, so many
\nchildren, who will never believe
\nin unicorns or magic
\nbecause even if they live,
\nthey\u2019ve seen too much
\nto believe in anything.<\/p>\n
\nwith me and she will pull
\nall the sheets to her side and
\nI will wake up cold, perturbed.
\nHow ridiculous that I am
\nanything but overjoyed to
\nwatch her sleeping face,
\nmouth open, eyelashes fluttering.
\nHow ridiculous that I am
\nanything less than grateful
\nfor the warmth of her body,
\nthe smell of her hair\u2014fruity
\nfrom the detangler spray.<\/p>\n
\nwhen so many are not.<\/p>\n