When she left, Anita took Mom's valise, the round one with the wooden handle from Eaton's department store. Mom was furious. She'd had it on hold at the store for weeks while she earned enough to ... [+]
home built around hearth. body
full of brutal architecture? built
around incessant tides pulling blood tallies
across bone calendars.
i baked bread yesterday,
measured flour, yeast, saltwater heat. left to fill
skeletal imprints of my hands
i did not eat.
kept the sea out of myself. virgin
goddesses knew the months
better than i. knew calculus
of mirrored x body. counted brackish veins.
vesta and selene. sexless violence
inscribed, inverted,
what lunacy? i baked bread again today
let scores burn to cinder.
shoulderblade moon. scorched hearth.
turned my skin inside out.
swept up the ash. kept
myself housed in unfamiliar oceans.