The Glacier
Issue Two
Winter 2023

Baby Shower

We went in knowing we were hated through a cellophane prism of light. Bags with bears, a fox, an elephant in a box, a clothesline hung with tiny clothespins. Mothers floating in and out, the uterine fluid buoying us all. When the current turns to riptide, speaking different languages of love, a mother’s mother offers me a slice of baby cake. I ate. I ate and ate—ignoring the soft belly, the light pink icing, whipped cream frothing from its center. I ate. I ate and watched the expectant mother giggle at the toes and chubby curves of the ankle and calf as she brightly nuzzled the sweetness past her lips. I am not a mother. Never will be a mother. Watching her tuck what was left of the crumbs and icing, the right arm, part of the shoulder under a blanket of sugar, careful not to touch the face, suspending her disbelief. The baby still whole and sleeping there.

MARY LOU BUSCHI is the author of two full-length poetry collections most recently, PADDOCK (Lily Poetry Review, 2021). Her next book, BLUE PHYSICS, will be out in 2024 (LPR). Mary Lou’s poems appear in literary journals such as Ploughshares (forthcoming), 2River, The Laurel Review, and Against the Seawall. For more information: https://www.maryloubuschi.com

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