Nicole Callihan
from Yesteryear
(6/8) Back
Cackalacky way,
in girlhood,
I got words,
small words,
and dirty ones,
but some
really, really
ugly words,
put in my head,
butted up
against good
words, jesus
and sweet tea
and Queen Anne’s
lace which
sounded so regal
but was a place
for the mites
to crawl into
your panties,
and Cheerwine,
and mama,
mama, love
you, mama,
don’t be
that way, mama,
crabapple,
hillbilly, purdy
is as purdy
does—those ugly,
hateful, chigger
loving, niggardly,
retarded words
were butted
against the good,
sunk in, dark
flies in morning
molasses, and
slow as, and
sticky, and I wish
I could scrub
it all out
in the sink,
all the blood,
shit, and grief,
but even
in nothing
but the light
of this
full moon,
I still see
the stain.
—Submitted on 06/09/2020
Nicole Callihan is the author of SuperLoop (Sock Monkey Press, 2014), The Deeply Flawed Human (Deadly Chaps, 2016), Downtown (Finishing Line Press, 2017), and Aging (Yes, Poetry, 2018). With Zoe Ryder White, Callihan is the co-author of A Study in Spring (Rabbit Catastrophe Press, 2015) and Elsewhere (Sixth Finch Books, 2019). With Samar Abdel Jaber, she is the co-author of Translucence/بين قارّتين (Indolent Books, 2018). Callihan is also the author of a novella, The Couples (Mason Jar Press, 2019).
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