My mother\u2019s failed flower
\nbed, her dogs\u2019 graves in the moss-
\ncovered grove by the shed.
\nI can\u2019t think of them
\nwillingly;
\nthe dogs all died
\nin Biblical ways: horrific
\n& in passing.
\nBefore we sold the house,
\nwe gathered
\non my mother\u2019s bed.
\nShe dug her thumbs
\ninto either side
\nof my tender spine,
\nwanted to soothe an ache
\nI claimed,
\nshe & my brother high.
\nThe popsicle wrappers
\nhe & I slipped behind
\nthe bread box, strings of ants
\nin the summers;
\nold polaroids in cheap,
\nripping albums,
\ntucked by clovers & petals
\nI took from the woods
\nnot realizing they\u2019d one day dry
\nout. Once, a yard fire
\nexploded, blew my mother forward
\nfor putting too much gas
\non its piled leaves
\n& made liquid
\nthe skin of her shin.
\nWhen she washed the trailer
\nwalls, smoke drizzled down them
\nlike basted fat.
\nWasps dying for their nest
\nin the gutter;
\nhow, when a yellow jacket stung me
\non the way home
\nfrom the bus stop,
\nmy mother punched it dead
\nthen looked for it
\nin the gravel.
\nEmpties in the shower.
\nThe roly-poly I loved so much
\nI made it a house
\nfrom a Crackerjack box
\n& flushed it
\nwhen it died; the turtle I found
\n& kept
\nbeneath my bed
\nwith a leaf to eat,
\nthat my brother threw
\nfrom the bowed back
\ndoor before he said
\nI was cruel<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s failed flower bed, her dogs\u2019 graves in the moss- covered grove by the shed. I can\u2019t think of them willingly; the dogs all died in Biblical ways: horrific & in passing. Before we sold the house, we gathered on my mother\u2019s bed. She dug her thumbs into either side of my tender spine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4Kw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18288,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions\/18288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}