
NOTE: Line breaks may shift on a mobile device.
1
The scar that flows from my aunt’s thigh
to the boulder of her swollen ankle is a map
of the Haw River,
each toe a Blue Heron.
2
My mama’s waterr
……is all water, I’m every river rock
inside her being smoothed over.
3
The palms of my uncle’s hands
are the Deep River when he is holding a gutted trout.
Always something
is bleeding.
4
You saw her bloody
and did nothing,
you Yellow Perch.
5
My uncles sinned openly
on Sunday,
fed in the daytime,
…..a White Catfish.
6
My smallest cousin is a salamander in their father’s
…..Neuse River arms, legs hanging there
like Blackwater.
7
Every woman
who has ever told me to clean my face
is the Atlantic Ocean.
8
The shoreline of this beach
is also a history lesson,
these sea shells
have blood on them.
9
I dream mostly in floods.