The girl with a mother throws the mother
The girl with a mother throws the mother
to the ground as she runs, &
the mother becomes a mirror, the mother becomes
a forest. The mother flees to the opposite
side of the ocean, & the girl is free of the mother. The girl
celebrates the absence of mother before
the mother opens her mouth to reveal yard after yard
of silk teeth, & inside the teeth, gifts: yarn,
homemade paper, railroad nail, necklaces, blue glass,
tea. The girl pours silk into all the corners
of her house & thinks about silk constantly & wonders
about her own red teeth. The girl
with a mother climbs into a tower to be free
of the mother, & the mother turns her sadness to a ladder
to climb to the girl & bring her back
to the banks of the river where she was born. The mother
gives up speaking to build a ship
out of ghosts, then touches the ghosts as if
they were sails, & the girl runs.
| Rachel Bennett |
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