A 9 To 5 Wife Poem by Raj Dronamraju

She doesn't keep any records of all that she has done
But if asked could recite the exact time of tasks completed
It could possibly connect the physical plane to what we are inside
But now there is no connection
All happens as if in the past
Work is the connection to the present
Her only communication is with routine

The house doesn't answer her back
The rows of skincare products on the bedroom bureau
The box of toys in the hall closet
The dishes drying on the kitchen rack
The laundry piled in the master bedroom
All are without voice to bear witness

The children are ghosts
Everyone else moves with the speed of the alive
One step quicker than the perception of a still microworld within a world
Her efforts keep her apart from stark truths
Her efforts stabilize what she has told herself
She has told herself that she is alone

Alone in that she cannot see another person
Reacts to running, laughing, misbehaving children
Reacts to the feel of her husband's body next to her
But that's not what her conscious mind is seeing now