Scarlet

“Tyrant”

Rage toward the silent voices, the neglectful voices that stand in the middle using their whiteness as the privilege to be a ghost in a fight that leaves more blood than water to drink. Scream toward the bodies in power that line their power suits with dead presidents as the images of the dead and […]

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“Your Featherbed”

Yours was my firstfeatherbed.Box stitched billows ofwarmthfloating undera sea offlannel security. Your oversizedold puffy comfortersealed our safe cocoon.living up to its nameembracing mealmost as well asyou did.We slept entwined.seamlesslyconnected, untilThe unfiltered lightinterferedrevealingstark, prescientshadowswe couldn’t ignore. I got up before youstepping ontoyour cold stone floor.(I swear you kept thethermostat at50)leaving the warmthof your bedand you. Christine

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The Perfect Omelet

So, you want to cook a perfect omelet, huh? Let me tell you, it’s an art. Not just anyone can master the delicate dance of eggs in a pan. It’s like a culinary ballet, and you need to be the star performer. First things first, crack the eggs. None of that shell nonsense – we’re

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“Unconditional”

Her unkempt hair covers her face and her little hands flail asserting her disgust This will be the first time he holds his tongue The first time he dances with such an innocent girl He’s used to rough used women Used to screaming about their imperfections Sending them back inside their cage Cage the savage

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“They Birthed Nations, Word Says”

The women who could not bear children at first: Sarai, Rachel, Rebekah, Hannah,Samson’s mother—name not givenElisabeth—John the Baptist’s motherand Michal—the one that got away— Their persistent askingamidst improvisationswas the knowingthat they were capable,deserving and worthy.Such confidence! Had they believed they were barren, truly, they would not have eventuallyconceived. Day and night they travaileddriven by intensity

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1980

Candies in a dish shaped like a leaf. Caramels with creamed sugar in the center, the kind somebody continues to make today, though not sold at every counter. One in the mouth would declare Sunday night, and each week when we had gone as a family to share dinner with my grandparents. Me. Brother, three

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“Trust”, “graveyards and parking lots” and “Might”

Trust In my first weeks of motherhood –a butchered belly busy reassembling its hip-wide slice,drenched in the effluvia of two,heavy, wet breasts needed and kneaded and needed,sullen, sleepless, alone with this vague, clinging little life,this six then eight then ten pound parasite,too heavy for my ruined body to lift –I was told to trust my

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The Manet

“What do you think of this painting by Manet?” I’m studying vibrant green stems visible through a cylindrical glass vase filled with luminous water. The stems are surmounted by a colorful bouquet of varying blooms on an almost grey background of oil paint tinted with lavender. The water seems to reflect an imagined late afternoon

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“Your Wolf Heart”, “The Genealogy of Sand”, and “Dead, She Was Not Mourned By Any of Them”

Your Wolf Heart ~after a line in Jack Gilbert’s “How to Love the Dead” The teeth bow out like waves hitting the shore.I have an inside voice, tongueless and mute.A wildflower forest : A century of weeds.When we had no money, we broke the bank my momhad given me and ate tacos for a week.

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Lover’s Spit

He has never-met a bad-Sofia. Do you-want-children? What would you-name-your-daughter? She has known him for five minutes, maybe ten. Sofia, he-thinks. Sofia is a-lovely, lyrical name. Sasha can’t pronounce his name so she calls him you. In fact, she can’t even remember what he told her his name is to begin with. Her lipstick has

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