What was love to my mother before she was my mother?
Something scarlet
in the cage of doves, just
a glass of burgundy splashed
on a pale tablecloth, blood stain on the white carpet, a red
bra worn
under a sheer silk blouse. Oh,
I hadn’t even been born, but I
was determined to make her a mother. I pulled
a needle and a thin red thread
smoothly through her, like a vein
and on the satin side of my mother’s heart
I embroidered, Be Mine
and on the black lace, my name.
from Space, In ChainsFind it in the library
Copyright © 2011 Laura Kasischke
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.