The Runaway Mommy by Laurie Koensgen

July 26, 2023
Poem title: The Runaway Mommy Poet name: Laurie Koensgen Poem: —after Margaret Wise Brown I’d like to be a fly on the wall when you Mom, if you become a fly on the wall I’ll become a giant fly swatter and aim for your shiny eyes. You want me to be an ostrich, to just bury my head in the sand. That’s a myth, you know. They’re really sucking up pebbles to grind their food because they don’t have teeth. Maybe I’ll become a flowering crab... Mixed metaphor. Bad apple! I might as well talk to the cat. You don’t listen. I might as well howl at the moon. If you start communing with the moon we’ll have you committed. Early. It’s bad enough when you sing full tilt with your earbuds in. I’m not going to credit you when I’m famous. Become a household word, Mom. I’ll still be your punctuation. Sit down when you eat that carrot cake. Have a bite. (And so she did.) End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Laurie Koensgen Previously published in Cauldron Anthology, (Mother issue, January 2022). Laurie Koensgen lives and writes in Ottawa, Canada. Her work appears in journals, anthologies and online magazines across North America and in the UK. She’s a founding member of the Ruby Tuesday Writing Group. Laurie’s latest chapbook, Blue Moon / Orange Begonias, is with Rose Garden Press.