Kingdom Animalia by Aracelis Girmay

Author:Aracelis Girmay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
Published: 2011-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

The Doorway of Our Mother’s Leg Leads Me to You, Brother

In the food section of the swap meet,

all of us standing & eating like horses. Hot dogs,

the nervous laughing of teenagers, & the far away face

of the woman whose skin moved,

ruddy, beneath a screen of smoke. Our mother’s leg

in spasms, having just come up from the wheelchair of her surgery.

The nerves gone rogue, haywire, split into two,

one side over there & one side over there, her leg

convulsing with the argument. That’s just how it was.

I wish I could remember what we did with our faces. All I see

is our mother’s, the shame & branding of the muscle’s buck

whipped red by the nerves’ quick revolt. I see her face.

Always coming & going from school, I barely knew the routine.

How long it would last. Our aunt, our cousins, & the baby.

But most of all, you, Brother. I wish I never left.

The year turned without our ever paying attention,

& not when the calendar said it would. One day,

we looked up & everything was different. The mail comes.

Yours in your name, mine in my name. Now,

two different sides of the country & your hair

is turning. The death that cuts me most is the one I never say

out loud. I am leaving for boarding school,

the rental van is packed. You are not

coming with me for the first real time.

This story is an axe when the van

pulls away. Distance is fat & bleeds, marks the second

death. But, you see, the heart still works. It is almost unbearable—

the heart that works. It must know something

my head doesn’t know.

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