AN IMAGINED EXCERPT FROM FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA’S POST-PRESIDENTIAL BOOK

and i told him
i loved him after
wiping his tears
and that i’d put the girls
to bed with bedtime
stories undoing the
day’s rumor that
their daddy was the devil
(the day before he was a monkey)
and then i showed
him my bruised knuckles
my bruised knuckles
which he kissed lovingly
as i explained how
i’d had another moment
and punched the wall