Self-Portrait As A Mourning Dove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX73VDwL5to&t=15s
South Florida Poetry Review. This is an audio of my poem that was recently published there. #SOFLOPOJO#miscarriage#poetry#audioSelf-Portrait As A Mourning Dove by Sheree La Puma https://youtu.be/FX73VDwL5to via@YouTube
Self-Portrait as A Mourning Dove
To the baby, I miscarried in my 20’s
I try to hold on to the baby/passing/through me, soft
as a blurred/landscape. Listen for a coo
after a long season of silence
has me/pleading for rescue.
A life in seconds, here, then gone.
One of so many wounds that go unnoticed.
She leaves before she’s ready. A fistful of pink
white/dandelion/curls/blown free
into the gold of a California sky.
Grief has
a fundamental need to evolve.
I let my mind sleep and my heart numb.
Ugly bird with your drawn-out song of lament,
what do you keep in the years since she left,
a blank page, shredded, seeds and grit?
A bandage of shrubs?
Knowing that songs too soon would cause a different
bleeding, a scar grows in the dark of your throat.
After the fire/Paradise, screams. Survivors
keep keys without locks to fit into, tattoo
Ponderosa/pines on arms & chests,
the once-ubiquitous trees fueled/flames/stripped
bone from skin. This is how you melt into earth,
an irretrievable spillage.
I mourn for what seems to be a lifetime, missing
the spring of you.
In autumn, when the winds blow/strong & cold,
I breathe out grey/ash/let singed dreams go.
But for this, the sky might burn/wild,
forever.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with me.