by Susan diRende
Signs
Hello little mouse, wee
white mouse wallowing
in the half-moon hollow,
nest beneath my daughter’s
ribs, her heart—
your temporary house.
Metal Rat sisters, you and I—
though I’m old and once removed—
a rare familial match
across time as split
and chiseled by the zodiac.
You curl below Earth-
Snake mother’s breast, quickening
marshy bed, salt-sleek pillow
of grass for your wobbling
thumbnail head, spectral tail
drawn in, lizard limbs bud, flail.
Mary Beth Hines’s poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction appear in journals such as Brilliant Flash Fiction, Crab Orchard Review, Literary Mama, Madcap Review, and SWWIM among many others. She writes from her home in Massachusetts, and is thrilled that Kelsay Books will publish her first poetry collection in 2022. Visit her at www.marybethhines.com.
Author/artist Susan diRende travels the world with no fixed abode. She has won awards for her writing including the 2017 Special Citation for Excellence by the Philip K Dick Awards. Her artwork has had exhibitions in New Zealand, Belgium, Mexico, and the US. Most recently, she has had writing and artwork published in The Dewdrop, the Pine Hills Review, and The Gaze Journal.