Top Places to Breastfeed
This week in the PEN Poetry Series, PEN America features a poem by Sara Mumolo.
Top Places to Breastfeed
Today I read a conceptual poem about how to kill your wife
While I was breastfeeding
While I was handpumping in my ’96 Honda Civic
Where only one window rolls down
But it doesn’t matter because it was raining
Today I was pumping in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the family bathroom of the Museum of Art
While writing notes on my iPhone
About work about how I wish I could be writing a poem
Then I went to a poetry reading
Where I read poetry with 3 other poets
at McNalley Jacskson Bookstore in Manhattan
And wizard Keith Waldrop read poems past us all
But I hadn’t pumped in hours
And my breasts hurt so I asked
If I could pump in the employee bathroom
When I said what pump meant—from breasts— they looked at me blankly
When I tried to plug the pump into the outlet it didn’t work
The outlet the bookstore wasn’t powerful enough
There wasn’t enough power
And I felt like a baby horse shaky
And unprepared using a pump without batteries
That my boyfriend who I call my husband
But is really more of a partner carried
Around Manhattan all day except
When we were at the Museum of Art because he checked the backpack
Today I read a conceptual poem about how to kill your wife
While breastfeeding at 3am in my desk chair
Because I don’t have a rocking chair
But my desk chair is high-backed and swivels from side-to-side
And I wore one of those belted pillows
Around my waist so baby can lay his head no his ear
On the pillow and it’s soft
But supportive
Today I pumped in my office at work with no window
But with a skylight in my office which I share now
But didn’t before maternity
And the air conditioner that hangs on the wall
That isn’t really a wall
But is more like a layer of fat between me and the outside world
Or hallway wouldn’t shut off
So it was cold
But only I was cold
Because I’ve never the seen the woman I share my office with
Someone once said she has three offices
Because economy of scarcity
Because contemporary grammar made a new preposition
Where kid says why and parent says because
Today I read a conceptual poem about how to kill your wife
While breastfeeding at the back table of a sushi restaurant
With 3 friends drinking sake
I was holding my baby’s head in the crook of my elbow
But it got sweaty and he didn’t like it
While I breastfeeding under one of those covers called a breastfriend
And he didn’t like being exiled or it was too hot in the crook
Not really friendly at all
Today I pumped in the Atlanta airport women’s restroom
At the sink while ppl walked past
And I wore one of those bras for hands free pumping
Which also meant I wore a tinge of shame I knew I shouldn’t feel
The way a dairy cow must feel about seeing a carton of whole milk
Alongside a conceptual poem about how to kill your wife
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