Modeling
A poem by Jill Michelle

Modeling

I’ve slipped away to the office again
to read, to write, to avoid the preschool

blight of Barbies, tea parties, Muppet
sing-alongs on ceaseless stream.

So this is where you are, the three-foot
huntress squawks, adding You’re a tricky one

licorice-thin fingers wrapping around
my typing arm as she wins our uncalled

match of hide-and-seek, and I worry
what she thinks of me, this mother

who sneaks away to practice poetry
the human she’s trying to unravel

when I can’t even fathom myself
let alone her, suddenly a little person

personality, who runs for a pad of paper
and pen, scribbles a handful of slanted lines

announces, I have a poem to read.

About the Author:

Jill Michelle’s latest works appear/are forthcoming in Drunk Monkeys, Hawai`i Pacific Review, The Lake, LEON Literary Review and New Ohio Review. Her poem, “On Our Way Home,” won the 2023 NORward Prize for Poetry. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more of her work at byjillmichelle.com.

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