by Bridget Rawding
“The photograph is my own and the collage poem superimposed on it contains fragments from Leslie Jamison’s essay “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain,” from her essay collection The Empathy Exams.”
three parts of a broken song
[fatherland i]
here, you’re learning that;
i. ‘father’ is the synonym of stone, lashes
cuts/bruises;
ii. there’s such a sin as sprouting heavenward to kiss the sun,
and allowing your chlorophyll absorb emeralds;
iii. mouths take the shapes of cenotes
beneath clear blue skies; roadblocks: a dentition of beasts;
iv. a trigger’s click is how the conductor steers
the orchestra from an aubade to a dirge;
v. a kiwi must evolve into growing wings,
or be eaten by its teething nest.
[this kiwi soon takes flight, but gets trapped in the body of an american boy]
watching atop the statue of liberty, your household in flames,
you hope to feel/remember nothing.
just then, your invisible trail on the sea
starts whispering your name. tirelessly.
[family ii]
into the gulf between father and mother,
mama would wring her pillow,
and we’ll have the world’s largest sea on the map.
10:05 p.m, a tempest troubles this sea,
and my father jettisons me with curses.
swimming away, towards the horizon, mother’s prayers
tells the wild currents the shore to deposit me.
[flesh iii]
there’s a boy — he calls you ‘father’
and every time he does, your yoke weighs heavier.
your scars, they begin to shapeshift into eviction letters.
heavy-hearted, you ignore the principle
of floatation, throwing yourself into thirsty waters.
you begin to s
i
n
k.
farther away from all you ever called home,
your anchor misses the chest of your son
skipping with his friends at the backyard.
Martins Deep (he/him) is a Nigerian poet, artist, & and currently a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His works deeply explores the African experience, & tells stories of her young. His creative works have appeared, or are forthcoming on The Roadrunner Review, Covert Literary Magazine, Barren Magazine, The Hellebore, Chestnut Review, Mineral Lit Mag, Agbowó Magazine, Surburban Review, IceFloe Press, Kalahari Review, Variant Literature, Typehouse Literary Magazine, IceFloe Press, & elsewhere. He loves jazz, adores Bethel Music and owls. He tweets @martinsdeep1.
Bridget Rawding is a librarian and writing instructor in the greater Boston area. In both her writing and photography, she is drawn to the juncture between image and text. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the Mountainview Low-Residency MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University, and resides in Lawrence, Massachusetts.