My mother later told me that they had sex
four times a day every day. Tilt-
O-Whirl rides taken to induce abortion
between me and my little brother. She
already had three babies under three and
my father hid her birth control. When
she found it and began taking it again
he denied her sex and they both started
having affairs. Where did they find the time?
She worked as a nurse at a children’s home,
he sold books for Zondervan. There was us.
All I know is this: the split pea soup
that my mother’s dentist’s wife made for us
kids, warm and filling. Her pleas
for Mom to give her husband back, fading.
Anna Abraham Gasaway (She/Her) is an emerging, disabled writer who has been published in Poetry International, Cream City Review, One Art and others. She received her MFA at San Diego State University and serves as a reader for the Los Angeles Review. She can be found on Twitter/X @Yawp97.