March 19, 2014 / Creative Writing
My mother idolized the pampas grass and my father idolized the peppers that fell when I was born.
I remember a doctor who wasn’t mine,
flitting through when the sun broke
new, perching briefly on my narrow bed,
that mattress I was matted on.
She was a woman first, so she sang
to the babe of me, bloomed
with hellos and yellow light, voiced
the day’s encompassing night.
I want to die her way,
getting up,
singing each morning
like June, all the notes
just beyond being in tune.
About the Author
Susan Carlson
Susan Carlson lives, works, and writes in southeastern Michigan. She’s had the opportunity to develop her poetry in workshops at Tin House, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Her poems have appeared in Your Impossible Voice, Blue Bear Review, Switchgrass Review, and Literary Nest and are forthcoming in Pretty Owl Poetry and from Madness Muse Press.
Jennifer Strange
March 19, 2014 / Creative Writing
March 19, 2014 / Creative Writing
Mark C. Watney
October 22, 2018 / Creative Writing
October 22, 2018 / Creative Writing
Mark C. Watney reflects on his father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease in the broader context of our own ubiquitous spiritual dementia.