Luray Gross: Curriculum Vitae

I come from a womb that came from a womb 

where one child thrived and one child failed.

.

Some days I am nothing but bluster. Bluster, and this 

small dance I let my hips lean into before they snap back. 

. 

When I was eight I starved my pet rabbits, 

I slapped my sisters and mastered the art of the pout.

.

I spent junior high in the fiction section

and cautiously befriended the halt and the lame.

.

Now the worm is my mentor, blind and persistent.

The wind is my friend and the dog who does not speak.

.

I worship the ball bearing, 

singing, spinning and hidden as it works.   

.

My hands reach from side to side, my breadth, 

my height, no adequate measure or reach.  

.

Still, the harmed boy turns out his sadness in the paddock of my arms

then runs and somersaults across the spindly stream.   

.

The brainy girl child with thorny braces grazes in the tiny pasture 

of my attention. She tastes the young grass, breathes in its scent.

.

My man calls me beautiful, though he knows 

how it feels to be wounded by words.  

.

Sometimes I pray to the god I scarcely believe in.

Let me be still. Let me be mute and burnished.

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Copyright 2019 Luray Gross. From Lift published by Ragged Sky Press.