Once the phrase has been shouted, it squats
at the base of the stairs—like a cockroach, like a cup
thrown and shattered—its I a doorpost, wobbling
the handrail, the stress a book, open mouthed.
So when my sister stares at the carpet—when she
doesn’t flinch on the basement landing
where we crouch, gouged risers,
a sheen of grit and empty shelves,
after heaving it from the back of my throat,
I ask, Do you feel anything for me?—
clenched over the T pinned between my teeth
like an insect retreating and that e
silent, its work done.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 16, Issue 4.
Laura Madeline Wiseman is the author of more than a dozen books and chapbooks and the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013). Her recent books are American Galactic (Martian Lit Books, 2014), Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink, 2014), Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013), Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012), and the collaborative book Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins.
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