Youth
Rent from DeepDyve- Youth
I stand in the foreground, nineor ten years old, stiff in a darksuit, shirt buttoned to the throat,handkerchief in my breast pocket,shoulder gripped by my mother.Her expression says, takethe goddamn picture NOW.My expression is turnedwholly inward as I listen toa voice urging me to keepstill, breathe later.I have dozens of photosin which my fingers are thisrigid, my eyes thisblackened by blows from mymother’s hands. A latemorning breeze liftsthe pale green tipsof her silken scarf.Sunlight catches the heavyglobes of her earringsand soft white glovesdangling from her closed fist. [End Page 16]
Floyd Skloot’s most recent collections of poetry are The Snow’s Music (LSU P) and The End of Dreams (LSU P). His work has won three Pushcart Prizes and has been included in the Best American Essays, Best American Science Writing, Best Spiritual Writing, and Best Food Writing annual anthologies, each twice. His book Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir (U of Wisconsin P) is forthcoming. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
