Love Is Not Enough - Leong Liew Geok

Not that I don’t want to be
A loving wife, a good mother.
Not that I can’t sacrifice
Like all women before or after.
Not that I don’t love.
Not that I can’t cook.
Not that I won’t please.
Not that I shan’t care.

Love is not enough

At home, husband
And children lodge,
Biting, munching, gnawing
Bone, bloody and bare.

Dream-monsters trip me
At work, smirking of home;
Past midnight, in a kitchen
Emptied of sound and smell,
Tangled in knots,
I see him upstairs,
Asleep, alone.

Must bearer-wearers always ache?

Hard and white, I grate
Like half-cooked rice.