AFFORDED THE CHANCE, MOTHER FLED WITH FLOWERS (from Ricochet )

Abstract

AFFORDED THE CHANCE, MOTHER FLED WITH FLOWERS (from Ricochet) Deborah Brandon (bio) when i was five, the worst dream was swallowinga marble. i’d wake by the bowl, shockedpale. i knew without question who was comingto reverse my wrongdoinghold my tongue down and vomit past it all the doors are the same all the doorseverywhere tears fell onto my easter pleats all thedoors everywhereafter i raked i stared at the 6’x3’ area i’d cleared asthough the future could fit there it’s just a city the smellsare nothing personal it’s just graffiti, fossilsover fossils if some silt still clings to the underside is anyone surprised [End Page 162] forge the signature! forge it of steel! wield it! a seed into soil,,, and when i am a man as a man then i am safe because of stars and when i am gone i am gone for hir gone & i’m swallowing her him with all my her and him upon our return we pass a place whichclaims to but does not have all thetires in the world i don’t need them salt air on my feet [End Page 163] beach sand slips over the layers of itself beneath my feet i step filling my own footprints [End Page 164] Deborah Brandon deborah brandon holds an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Additional work: Transom, Ocho, MiPOesias, [PANK], Bombay Gin, Mom Egg Review, Denver Quarterly, Moonshot, Hotel Amerika, Cadillac Cicatrix and Puerto del Sol; and anthologies Writing the Walls Down and Anthology of Georgia Poetry. Copyright © 2015 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents