ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Angela Maria Spring is the owner of Duende District, a pop-up boutique bookstore by and for people of color, where all are welcome. She holds an M.F.A. in writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and has words in Catapult and Tor.com. She has poems forthcoming in Radar Poetry, Pilgrimage, and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.
Loss Is Not Meant for the Never-Haves
Half-formed, as all desires born on coated
surfaces, gingerbread torsos too soft to brace
The man says,
'It seems I have lost
for capricious sky. Let them run wild on soft
legs, then place each one in the sandbox,
the ability to walk.'
The wise woman
miniatures arranged just so onto a tornado-
sown landscape of unstemmed flowers, tea
gives him a granite
pebble, instructs him
cup, ceramic collie on its side. White trellis,
a candlestick, buried doorknob, matchbox,
ikeep it in his pocket,
tells him the key ingredient
five spools of thread, three red pin cushions.
The plastic tree perfectly upright in the center.
is tomorrow. But the man
has forgotten this word,
Slowly widen the lens as mystery severs its knot,
transforms into breath painting a window
has forgotten the scent
of earth. So he watches
one winter morning, waft of hot coffee, a child's
laughter pitched over the television. Medicine
his son, squeezes the tiny
rock, forgets he has also
cabinet shut, photograph face down on the table,
another day the gun does not make it to your mouth.
forgotten how the fiercest
hold still slips.
This poem is about how no matter how much we try to control our lives and emotions, some things are simply bigger than us. It was written after a man who I dated as a teenager and later committed suicide under the influence of narcotics, leaving behind his children. The miniatures come from my mother, a child psychologist, who specialized in sand-tray therapy, which uses a variety of miniatures to help create a scene for an individual to process a trauma. I have always been fascinated by tiny things and as we find myself mired in the rolling grief of this pandemic, I return to obsessively searching out miniatures on Instagram.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
