Tips for parenting during lockdown

The advice says
keep a routine,
get outside,
limit snacks,
oversee crafts,
make learning fun,
reduce stress,
avoid conflicts,
be everyone,
have everything,
breathe;

So she collected a possum skull
stranded in a rushing stream,
scraped off its flesh,
rinsed its blood and brain matter,
boiled away its fat,
and immersed it in hydrogen peroxide
in a yogurt container in the garage
until the bones were bleached pure
and the fanged jaw
smirked down from the shelf
to show her children
what a mother can make
out of the putrid decay
left at her feet.

Caleb Wolfson-Seeley is a baker and father residing in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He was a 2022 finalist for the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship for early-career writers of fiction whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference.