Small Like A Tooth / Carolyn Williams-Noren

Carolyn Williams-Noren recently rallied writers and readers to make a public place in her Minneapolis neighborhood to swap poetry (littlepoetrylibrary.org). She is a winner of a 2014 McKnight Artist Fellowship, selected by Nikky Finney. She’s also a knitter, grant writer, gardener, and slow-but-steady runner. Find Carolyn at williams-noren.com.

Writing About the First Months

No adjective changes baby.

Baby is butter. Baby is sugar.

Baby talks to the deep mammal brain. 

Trouble is baby

reads like sweet. Put baby down

and loveliness looms up.

I am miserable

taking care

of this baby. Miserable

is the stinger of a honeybee

licking the sticky stamen

of the six-foot hollyhock of baby.

Try it. Say I’m so tired

of this baby. Baby is hungry. Baby

swallows every other word

mashed and strained.