Morning Sickness

Listen: I eat everything
if the almond is a butter with vanilla bean
or if two kinds of eggs are both raw I’m down
 
but when I was knocked up
food tasted like blood, even milk
and chocolate and especially bread
 
I couldn’t touch my favorite savory kugel
or anything else in the world
there was a barrier
 
it was him, the way he looked at me
when I barfed on the ground in my kitchen
as if I had just done something unspeakably rude
 
I never worry about it much anymore
except the other day the mother of his second child
told me he thought it was my fault I was sick
 
and I thought of course he did
the injustice of it
my daughter and I photograph snails
 
and he is out there
we swing on the tire and he is out there
to spoil our joy; we bake blackberry muffins
 
in a silicone tin and he is out there
a hunter
I can take cream cheese and lox
 
and put it in an omelet
but I can’t do a thing for the other women.

 
 
 
 

Cady Vishniac is a former human statue and current copy editor earning her MFA in fiction at The Ohio State University. Her fiction appears in CutBank, and her poetry in Sugar House Review.