Evening fell without our notice. It happened somewhere between the rocking, the singing, the nursing, the reawakening and soothing, the dishes and the endless laundry. But darkness is suddenly present, and nags us into bed. Two hours to sleep until she wakes up again and then two more; three if we’re lucky, and in seven hours the blaring blue alarm will wake you and send you off to work while I nurse the baby… again. So sleep. Sleep while you can, because the body that once could not tire itself on mine is
beat.
I flatten onto my side of the bed like a splitting, warped board on a too-tidy floor, unable to synchronize my body with the bed’s supposed comfort. I pull the cold quilt over my aching shoulders and curl into you.
Goodnight. Goodnight.
Emily van Lidth de Jeude is a multimedia visual and literary artist. Emily is greatly influenced by expressionism and the natural sciences, as well as by mythology. She finds inspiration and joy in growing medicinal plants as well as in the rural lifestyle she and her family lead. She is a mother, a healer, an unschooler of two young children and an avid singer of traditional ballads.
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