I’m so sorry. We did
all we could.
Another mother
might cut off all her hair.
I grow mine long
and longer.
When I lean forward,
it cups my face
like a lover’s hands.
I’m in St. Francis’s cave
praying on my knees
in the dark:
tell me what to do.
I am nine again
under the dining room table,
peering out
through a wall of lace
at my father’s
high black shoe.
He never told us
what he did in France,
if he killed anyone.
He had thick wavy hair
like my son’s.
Mine’s poker straight.
Coarse, Mama said,
as a horse’s tail.
The seizure lasted
three to four minutes!
Can you imagine it?
The waters I walk beside
are not still.
Author of Heiress, which received The Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award 2018,
Zorba’s Daughter, which won the May Swenson Poetry Award, Moon and Mercury,
and three chapbooks. Still Life with Timex won the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize
and will be published in spring, 2021. Recent publications include The Yale Review,
The Hudson Review, and The Greensboro Review. A native of Chicago, she currently lives in Alexandria, VA.
Featured image: Resist fear assist love by Risssss