Visiting the V&A Six Weeks Postpartum

By Allie Bullivant
October 2021

Visiting the V&A six weeks postpartum

In the dim corridor they keep
a hundred nursing madonnas
sculptures, pendants, oil on panels

before I became a mother
I didn’t see them, really
though they are ubiquitous
as landscapes or hunting parties
among the hallowed
canon of fine art

but when all the visitors have gone
the plates cleared and the tea
in the gift shop runs out
during gallery after-hours
the babies remain sleepless
in a constantly feeding state
clawing the dusty air

and the mothers, porcelain
or wood broken faces
from too many years of this
each with one raised hand
to wave at any stragglers
as if to say don’t, please don’t
you’ll upset the baby

patron saints of thankless tasks
silent as the golden details
buried in their unkempt hair.