The Burdens We Place Upon the Children

 

 

The Burdens We Place Upon the Children

 

 

It stormed one night so hard

that the trailer roof rattled

like to come right off.

 

I stared out the window

of the bedroom shared

with my sleeping brothers.

 

I imagined the porch awning

sagging,

groaning with the weight of angry rain.

 

 “We need it so much,”

             had said my grandma.

“We are so dry,”  

            had said my grandma, ‘

the drought dirt cracking

beneath her cracked heels.

 

But still that night I prayed,

            beside my sleeping brothers

for the rain to stop,

            stop,

 before it carried the trailer away.

 

I prayed, afraid,

and immediately tasted guilt.

We need it so much,

I whispered.

We are so dry,

I whispered.

 

So I laid up till dawn

beside my sleeping brothers

as the wind rattled the trailer,

praying and praying for rain

 

 Elizabeth Mathiasen

 

Elizabeth Mathiasen is a computational biologist, and graduate student living in the Bay Area of California. Full-on academic writing, she has turned to poetry as a palate cleanser and has found it delicious. She is a jewelry artist and twee ukulele songwriter, as well. She wishes to thank her friends and family who love her poetry enough to suggest that she seek publication. Ariel Chart is her first professional literary credit.