Thank you, Tamyka Bell!

I’m happy that you mentioned that phrase because it was one I struggled with. Not because it was hard to come up with — that was the easy part — but because I was worried about how readers might react to the word “torment” being used in a poem about motherhood. However, I chose to leave that phrase in because it was what felt most honest to me. I think many different types of love (including the idea of forbidden love that you wrote about in your poem) can “collide in joy and torment,” and maybe that’s why we will always be writing about them!

Thanks again, Tamyka Bell, for your kind words. These projects on Chalkboard always keep me on my toes!