Tender Nest
stephanie roberts
Cover Art: Joseph Cornell, "The Dandelion Tree," 1967, Collage w/ wood, glass, and photostat with dye, SFMOMA.
Tender Nest
I'll never know how tall
momma was supposed to be; scoliosis curled her to the left as a teen-aged question mark. Pinion of two steel bars and six-month body cast stint saved her the glory of Quasimodo. She'd say (as goad) Six months cast and still I danced. At five five, I towered her five none; in stages that contradict the physics of evidently, a dwarf may over a giant. Say, yes, to ultimate tensile strength and frailty that allows us to be drawn drum-tight thin and musical as bow caresses the pointed aim of violin's high mourning. Today, America cracks agape along branches of madness. An eagle egg despairs itself into a trillion fragments against the crazed soccer knee of god. Trust when I confide, momma's rage filled every Latina stereotype to overflow. Quick angry —glamoured with rainbow sequins, on three inch lucite heels, punctuated in slashes of scarlet lipstick. I accepted explosion like surprise surprise an IED in Kandahar clicks, shrapnel whistles New York New York in Sinatra's tenor, natural and guilt-free as breathing. Don't allow one single bloodless bastard to sell you this nonsense as iron bridge. I bent forward, forward, and forward without breaking, trying fluid forgiveness, testing wines of mercy, while she checked the inherited true of my spine's longitude. She died young exactly as a meteor breaks the back of fall, bright and bitter sped. It divided my heart —how a spark blinks to wish on. I'm riser from the nest of my momma and tread for the rest of my daughter who won't be forced to leap the threshold of her house on fire. |
stephanie roberts is a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poetry has been featured in numerous periodicals including Verse Daily, Arcturus, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Atlanta Review, FLAPPERHOUSE, L'Éphémère Review, Occulum and Crannóg. Born in Central America, she grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and now, from a wee French town outside of Montréal, she dreams of compassion based society. Twitter/Instagram shenanigans @ringtales.
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