Michelle Petty-Grue

How it was
Wake:
Feel full weight of body.
Feel pressure on my chest from
purring cats named Anxiety and Depression.
Miss:
Being an early riser.
Force myself
through morning routine
because that’s what moms do.
Surge:
Temporarily feel something like
energy. Then the inevitable
crash
from working without
eating.
Evening:
Most days I eat
dinner. Sometimes that’s
uneventful. Other times it’s a
battlefield and I
don’t know
where
my help
comes from.
Storytime:
I soak in the wonder of holding a
book, snuggled by a pajama-wrapped
heartbeat that taps out morse code messages.
Bedtime:
Try to sleep the sleep of
someone who wants to
wake up.
Michelle Petty-Grue is an assistant teaching professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She researches higher education pedagogy and writing studies through the lenses of intersectionality and critical digital literacies. She has previously published in the fantasy journal Astral Waters Review, Spoken Black Girl Magazine, Zingara Poetry Review, the Expressionists Magazine of the Arts, and DASH Literary Journal. Feeding her creative energies and making space during motherhood and her professional life has been a challenging pleasure.