MORNING TEA

Betsy Littrell

When I woke up, my hair

seemed a shade darker, perhaps

to match my eyes. I remember silly 

things, like how I threw up after eating 

an apple and cheese, pregnant with my 

second son. Why didn’t I update the album with new

photographs? I tossed the drooping white roses, tinged 

with brown in cloudy water, but I didn’t have it in me 

to make the bed. I boiled water for my tea bag, 

wishing it was wine, contemplated my 

ghostly heart, locked myself in

the bathroom and cried into my tea.

I wondered if the tea would still soothe me with the 

salty tears. I tasted it, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know.

​

​

​

Betsy Littrell is a soccer mom to four boys, working on her MFA in creative writing at San Diego State University. Her recent publications include The Write Launch, The Road Not Taken and Prometheus Dreaming. She is a journalist at KGTV and volunteers with Poetic Youth, teaching poetry to underserved elementary students.