ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Chanel Brenner is the author of Vanilla Milk: a memoir told in poems, (Silver Birch Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the 2016 Independent Book Awards and honorable mention in the 2014 Eric Hoffer awards. Her poems have appeared in New Ohio Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, Muzzle Magazine, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Spry Literary Journal, Barrow Street, Salamander, and others. Her poem, “July 28th, 2012” won first prize in The Write Place At the Write Time’s contest, judged by Ellen Bass. In 2014, she was nominated for a Best of the Net award and a Pushcart Prize.
Also by Chanel Brenner:
Vanilla Milk: a memoir told in poems
While Cleaning The Playroom
Where the World Ends
The Morning Before the Pregnancy Test
Now when I think of veins,
I see death returning.
I try to imagine my belly swelling,
my veins safe in compression hosiery,
but I can’t close what has opened.
My eyelid swells from a spider bite,
till I look like a monster. Other mothers’ kids
panic; baby spiders crawl in my veins.
Fear of another bite turns me
so insomniac and claustrophobic,
I hope to escape my body.
The window cracks open,
the seed in my belly swells,
and I shop once more at Babies R US —
but I see death monsters everywhere —
and cannot end the panic.
I am a monster. A stone mommy monster,
and only a stone baby monster would want
stone blood in its veins. What if I miscarry
from panic? What if I birth death again?
The defect in my son’s brain didn’t look
like a monster worthy of such panic.
It looked like a veined apple leaf,
a blueprint for life.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
