Cauldron Anthology Issue 14 - Mother | Page 63

Milk
Pea Flower Tomioka
She is exhausted .
Her body is weak and movement causes the incision across the belly a vessel of her greatest treasure , to singe in pain .
Her breasts ache . Her nipples crack . She is in anguish , caught between the struggles
to produce enough to feed her son a morning bottle , and the devastation she fears if she fails to fill the bottle .