Best New Poetry: when they sing the blues, they exclude the baby blues by Manisha Sahoo

when they sing the blues, they exclude the baby blues

and so, she waits for water to boil, not piping, just enough, and she counts the bubbles gathered at the bottom of the dekchi, steam cradling her puffed cheeks, caressing her swollen eyes, irritating her nose as red as the crimson line glistening in her hair parting,

and she counts the bubbles which effervesce to the surface like the hurriedly masticated lunch regurgitates up her throat in its oily distaste, and she turns off the induction because gas cylinder was precious commodity now owing to a war separate from the sleeplessness and fatigue tearing apart her insides,

and she submerges washed milk bottles, water droplets leaping out and scaling her arms like frogs escaping a cursed well, and she ignores the rushing stings because the air rings with a sharp cry which demands her full attention,

and she forgets to close the steel vessel with the disassembled milk bottles bobbing upside down, letting the receding steam leave ephemeral fingerprints on the kitchen cabinets,

and she neglects to acknowledge the bubbles about to sprout on her arms, like whack-a-moles popping out together, where the sterilizing water kissed them,

and she rocks the 103-days-old, scared in dreams, nestled now in the nook of her elbow, tiny fingers resting on her sweat-stained, milk-stained tee, and she counts the minutes until the suckling sleepy baby hungered for more, more where her supply ran short, where the formula must be measured and mixed just right,

and she remembers she forgot to close the dekchi, and she wonders if she must clean those bottles with soap again before drowning them in freshly boiled water,

and she counts water bubbles in her dreams as they hiss against her skin, and she wakens to a fussy cry which demands her dazed full attention.

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Manisha Sahoo (she/her), from Odisha, India, has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a Master’s in English. Her words have appeared in Inked in Gray, Usawa Literary Review, Bridges Not Borders, The Ekphrastic Review, Apparition Lit, Sylvia Magazine, Atticus Review, and others. You can find her on Instagram/X/Threads/Substack @LeeSplash.