Ekphrastic 02: The Child's Bath by Mary Cassatt

The Child's Bath by Mary Cassatt (1893). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

My child
You know how much I love you.
Enough to sit you on my lap
While I wash your plump feet.

Is it me getting older
Or you growing too fast?

All I can feel is the numbness
Spreading rapidly down my legs
And the ache in my back
Throbbing like the drum you just played.

Yet I will still make the beef stew tonight
The one that takes me hours to make
But you can eat two servings of.

Ouch...
Don't think I can stand up straight for now.

(-)

A tender (but physically straining) moment, from my experience of squatting and bathing my child.

What about you? What do you see or feel from your perspective?