openmouthed, we grasp our children
this is what it means to start
from the beginning
shivering in one’s skin
what it means to start
a truce with face and form
soothing in one’s skin
the familial, a mother’s love
a truce without face forms
a dead son awash, the tiny body
familial (a brother) loved
now lifeless arms
dead son awash, a tiny body
to his mother still through gunfire
now lifeless, disarmed
on the corner by the playground
his mother still, though gunfire
crosses her son, the border (lengthwise)
on the corner, the playground
widens with neglect
cross with her son at the border
from the beginning
we widen with neglect’s
openmouth gasp, our children
Brenda Serpick received her MFA in poetry from The New School and is the author of three chapbooks: ‘the other conjunction in it’ (Furniture Press), ‘No Sequence But Luck’ (3 Sad Tigers Press) and ‘The Female Skeleton Makes Her Debut’ (Hophophop Press). She was a participating poet for Tupelo Press’ 30/30 Project (July 2016), and her poems have appeared in Requited, Tule Review, The Potomac, Free State Review, eccolinguistics, Printer’s Devil Review, Spiral Orb, LIT, Lungfull! Magazine, and Boog City – among other fine journals. She currently teaches English and creative writing for Baltimore City Public Schools.
