Weld the Womb
work clung to her face. her
small hunched body, the
curve of a C, a
biblical mosaic.
it’s tasking.
this life she leads is bitter.
the calendar year is
hard on the ankles.
if this is independence,
she’ll scribble it over while
drunk and nursing dregs.
the calendar year is
hard on the ankles.
everything puckers,
crease marks subtle,
the grays spring out like
ticker tape, wring
like grandma’s hands, that
song she heard while
drunk and nursing dregs.
she sleeps a specter’s sleep,
overfeeds the devil, needy
as a pet.
these are the memories she buries
in holes deeper than conflict.
sear the edges,
weld the womb.
mother,
mother,
daughter,
pearl,
can you imagine bringing life into this?
Maryan Nagy Captan
Maryan Nagy Captan is an experimental writer, educator, and performance poet based in Austin, Texas. She is a Fellow at The Michener Center for Writers and serves as the Marketing Director for Bat City Review. Maryan is the author of copy/body (Empty Set Press, 2017) and an alumna of the Disquiet International Literary Program. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in The Egyptian Writers Folio (Anomaly Press), Foundry, AJAR, Apiary Magazine, Mantra Review, Boneless/Skinless, Sundog Lit, and elsewhere.