counted

she works very hard
she works for herself
she works all the time
and
he is constantly at her side
asking for something
a drink / watch this / a french fry / find it / a carrot / help me
she
with her smartphone buzzing
and biscuits in the oven
and thirty-two new work emails since 2pm today
is poking her finger in his mouth to get out the grass he likes to eat for some reason
she does this automatically
without thinking about it
while thinking about something else
the dentist appointment she has tomorrow
and whether he will sit still long enough for her to get her teeth cleaned
or if she should get a sitter
or if she should just cancel it and try again later
like she did last time
she runs her tongue over her teeth
and thinks maybe if all her teeth fall out
they could give her new ones anyway
but those are dentures
and dentures are for old people
her phone buzzes again and she remembers the biscuits
and she saves them from burning
perfectly brown buttery yummy
and even though she burns her hand when she takes them out of the oven
she counts it as a victory
she counts his fingers and toes
she counts her blessings
she counts the number of minutes she has to respond to thirty-three emails before she hands him off to his dad and runs out to her lunch meeting
she counts on making at least seven out of eight green lights if she's going to be there on time