
Tag: ditchpoems
Roe v Wade -related poems in Headline Poetry & Press
little ditch
My chapbook about a teenage girl who excavates her agency from internalized misogyny, rape culture, & sexual abuse is now available from Rob McLennan’s above/ground press.
from ammonite sonnet
the ammonite an index of sutures
i got tired of cataloging them
hermetically sealing little traumas
afraid they’d get to know one another go boom
little mother catastrophes instead
i smashed little rocks to bits in a ditch
each shard a memory released pressure
from stomach the common burial ground
the cavity of accumulation
each little box coated in dust and feelings
each glass stone chamber not really secret
i get ready to shatter the discretions
i open my palms no explosions no pain
coalesce little traumas wrap your wounds
around each other a chrysalis blood
a becoming of feathers of air a fire
ditch poem #20
it was the wildness
everything was singing and
you tried to protect me
i resisted it was pitch
and forest it was the trenches
i washed my mud and
donned its mother i slept
among the trees my golden guilt
it was the wild nests of
Brooklyn summer it was the
Cyclone everything was grit
and sunshine a glitter
of dun sand. What is protection
he asked under the boardwalk
who rides the Wonder Wheel
i resisted it was milk
or the ditch
so i started digging.
ditch poem #6
we’re all becoming animals here
our scaly skins showing through the stained glass
why now why slither
the rainbow gate beneath suit sleeves
beneath chiffon and tweed
the rainbow plexus in our throats
once a wren ever an abalone shell
we were whole once
wander detritus wonder
the furs in the soft air
gentle browns of wood and bark
as the furs gallop by
identify me
call me into
curiosity pinwheel
i make little sparks
in recent lavas
we were the hands holding
tectonic/footstep
we were the under
and beneath
to speak in soil tongues
to be called into ditches
to be summoned
venal wing
wet black eros melt
leaf matter and dirt cake
the cavity of I root
small declivities of teeth
along the rim
how the mouth knows
we were once rose quartz
we were agate
smashed and smashed
among the rock
your smooth body a reminder