Scar
Rent from DeepDyve- Scar
Scar
On the anniversary of a death that wasn’t a death but a large-scaletrauma I read a book that says no energy is wasted. I say back: nothing. Because what do I know? Myprayers first felt like small rats that starved themselves until they thoughttheir loose skin was wings. I flew: nowhere.
My favorite failure of perception has been to blame people for theirideas. I did it so much last year. I said Alcoholic Mothers AlcoholicFathers I said Men with the hands men with the fists I said You are individuals & your hurts areindividual & then I let loose the rats. Ifound that prayers don’t fly, they burrow. They dig through the dirt untilit deepens.
So I have deepened, earth. (Can she hear me?) I have deepened.I have let this year be a kiln, each morning rising raw & red as bloodwhen it meets air.I have not been clay. I have been the blood. [End Page 106]
Ruth Baumann is the author of Parse (Black Lawrence Press). She is also the author of four chapbooks: A Thousand Ars Poeticas (Sixth Finch), Retribution Binary (Black Lawrence Press), wildcold (Slash Pine Press), and I’ll Love You Forever & Other Temporary Valentines (Salt Hill). Her poems have been published in Colorado Review, Sonora Review, Sycamore Review, the Journal, Third Coast, and others. She received an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in 2014. She holds an mfa from the University of Memphis and is pursuing her PhD at Florida State University.
