(The meter’s a bit off and it’s kinda mushy, but it’s the poem that started it all…)

Mommy Brain

If you’ve left the crayons to melt in the car,
And forgotten just where the car keys are,
There’s a perfectly good way to explain:
You see, you’ve come down with “Mommy Brain.”

When you’re not sure where the day just went,
Or whether the phone bill check’s been sent,
If you’ve left the laundry drying in the rain,
It’s just – you guessed it – Mommy Brain.

If you find yourself chatting for hours on end
About diaper prices with your cyberfriends,
You’ve just caught a particularly virulent strain
Of that affliction known as Mommy Brain.

If you left your bags at the grocery store
Or completely forgot what you went there for,
If you called the cat by your baby’s name,
You can bet that Mommy Brain’s to blame.

And if you know all of Goodnight, Moon by heart,
And study sleeping babes like works of art,
If you’re always surprised how time goes flying,
And thoughts of that first birthday start you crying…

It’s unavoidable, girls, and I feel your pain,
For I, too, suffer from Mommy Brain.
But I’ll admit one thing – of this I’m sure:
I hope they never find a cure.
©1998 Carlotta Eike Stankiewicz