This is the Hour of Lead

This is the Hour of Lead

This is the Hour of Lead 960 720 Melanie Kristeen

After Emily Dickinson

When I was a Little boy, I was Carved From My Mother
During Tangerine season—Her Skin a rind
Peeled back—Ghost Orchids Bloom

In Swamps—Precious Little things—Petals like lapels
Of Organza—Delicate, Rare, hunted—it takes so much
To Keep Surviving—In Denver

Daycare I was always in Trouble
For pulling Hair—for biting—you Know
Snow on the tips of The Rockies turns Blood

Orange at Sundown? I know violence
Is a Language that Changes Hands in silence—
On the back Porch of the House on Jade Hill

dad pinned Mom down & broke Her
Glasses—once My Sister blacked out
from Airway constriction—Mom chased dad

With a Kitchen knife — Familial conversations

Header photograph © Amanda Lee Calderon.

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