Daughterling, and: Intersections

Abstract

Daughterling, and: Intersections Chelsea Dingman (bio) Daughterling Blessed are those who stand still in theirconfusion. Blessed is the field as it burns.brigit pegeen kelly All the ghastly flies: I gave them girl names.I tried her names on them like girdles.They didn't stay. She wasn't dead enough then. I had lists. The windows, bustedin a hurricane in August, still in disrepair.The bones of a girl, unspilled, inside me. Names on headstones, this year I wanderthe cemeteries in Copenhagenlooking for our shadows. The dead tell me to go on. This living, like a belllodged in my throat. She let me pretenda name meant I could keep her like every shattered syllable my mouthhas made. Dear daughter, dear century,dear etymology—what more have I to do? Like a fool, I pick the peony.Lick every petal before swallowing.Praise what she has given me. [End Page 93] Intersections A mare lies alone in a field, her bellydistended, ribs like ladder rungs. Every fewminutes, her body quakes. The minstrel wind shakes the oaks, as she spits& shakes. I've seen this before:the way a woman's body reaches for its own ruin. Between the ilium,the sacrum. A head driven into hard bone.The alae's pearled wings that push back. In the 18th century, the sacrum was believedto be indestructible. The sacred bone.But, so much of birth is destruction— the vertebrae, the bodies, the promontory.Where & when & where. The intersectionof all parts. A cathedral's bronze doors opening. The sudden obedienceof warring states. A labour that can beoutlasted. And, sometimes, a good birth is merely a gasp of air. Blood. Shit.The cathedral, its windows kicked out. [End Page 94] Chelsea Dingman Chelsea Dingman is a Canadian citizen and visiting instructor at the University of South Florida. Her first book, Thaw, won the National Poetry Series (U of Georgia P). She also won the Southeast Review's Gearhart Poetry Prize, the Sycamore Review's Wabash Prize, and Water-stone Review's Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. Her work can be found in Ninth Letter, the Colorado Review, Mid-American Review, Cincinnati Review, and Gulf Coast, among others. Visit www.chelseadingman.com. Copyright © 2018 University of Nebraska Press