ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Ashley Mares is the author of Maddening Creatures (Aldrich Press, forthcoming), The Deer Longs for Streams of Water (Flutter Press), and A Dark, Breathing Heart (dancing girl press). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Stirring, Whiskey Island, Menacing Hedge, Whale Road Review, Prelude, Hermeneutic Chaos, and others. She is currently completing her J.D. in Monterey, Ca, where she lives with her husband.
Previously in Glass: A Journal of Poetry:
Vanishing
Undressing
Let's say I'm comfortable in my body
while I'm undressing — (because to rip
your body apart is a sin). It wasn't just
that I bruised easily — it's that broken
blood vessels pull me into the dirt like
gravity pulls a little bird from her
mother's breast. As a child I found her
with a broken wing — I heard God look
at her bruised body and say you are
my beloved — he saw me watching. He
said my beloved can have ribs that show
through skin — visibly bound to the
earth. As a child I asked my mother
how to revive the bones in me that
have died. A little girl rips herself apart
just to see what her body is made of — bone
shaving in hand — God says it's yours if
you want it — so lovely is a body
that will fail — bone shavings like sand
welling beneath the illusion of the
ocean — a promised love between
pieces of me that perched on my
mother's hip as a child and pieces of me
I let drown in the earth. I looked
at the little bird with the broken
wing — shook off her leaves covering
her — unhooked her ribs from the
earth — maybe she can't be fixed.
Lost & Found is published by Glass Poetry Press as part of Glass: A Journal of Poetry. This project publishes work that was accepted by journals that ceased publication before the work was released.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
