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Kristy Bowen
Sweet
A
girl holds a pear in her hands,
and
all is choreography,
the
coil and knot, the hearts
negative,
turning.
Maybe
it’s witches, maybe rain,
how
the bones glow
like
an x-ray, the gestures
of
hunger, thirst,
hands
cupped to mouth.
Her
blue dress speaks
of
siestas, the skulls of sparrows,
their
histories folded in drawers,
Flowers
taking root
in
the belly, and blooming.
All
month she tastes blood
on
her tongue, her thoughts
like
a house ruined by water.
The
neighbor’s horses
break
free of their pens
and
run past her windows,
their
awful hoof beats
muddying
the morning.
Like
Gretel, she learns where
the
sugar lies, in the dark,
dark
center of the myth.
Knows
that only some return
home
safely, the others
lost
to kitchens and wind.
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| Kristy Bowen’s work has appeared in
a
number of publications, including Small
Spiral Notebook, Stirring, and Poems
Niederngasse. She is the author of two chapbooks, Bloody
Mary and The
Archaeologist’s
Daughter, and a hypertext collection, lattitudes. A
two-time Pushcart nominee, Bowen was recently awarded first
place in The Poetry Center of Chicago’s 10th Annual Juried Reading
Competition. She lives in Chicago,
where she edits the online journal Wicked
Alice, and is the founder of
Dancing
Girl Press, devoted to publishing work by women poets.
More of her work may be seen at:
wickedpen email: K.Bowen
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11-04/
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