iodoform
even the cardboard pages
of waiting room children’s books
smelled
like iodoform. mama,
why didn’t you tell me it wasn’t your tummy
'til chapter books, 'til back to school?
mama, by the time
the pill bottles
were empty,
my baby teeth had fallen
and she would have been two.
nauseous nostalgia
there is concrete underneath the carpets here and
mama doesn’t like to talk about this place. pre-2003 is still
off-limits, a white-gated stairwellthat i might always
be too little to safely
descend.
she offers fractured lullabies
from the bottom step: some days, she laughs
about our christmas cookie sprinkles, smiles
for the stickers she scraped from my bedroom door, and forgives
the swing set’s plastic ropes for thinning as i thickened because this
is moving on, she says, steely eyes shut
to the nauseous color of the walls
that still contain her.
_
Zoe Blue is a full-time student in a small New England town. Between unnecessary trips to the laundromat, she writes poems, most of which are, in some way, notes to self. You can read more of Zoe's work on her in-progress portfolio blog, byzoeblue.tumblr.com.
even the cardboard pages
of waiting room children’s books
smelled
like iodoform. mama,
why didn’t you tell me it wasn’t your tummy
'til chapter books, 'til back to school?
mama, by the time
the pill bottles
were empty,
my baby teeth had fallen
and she would have been two.
nauseous nostalgia
there is concrete underneath the carpets here and
mama doesn’t like to talk about this place. pre-2003 is still
off-limits, a white-gated stairwellthat i might always
be too little to safely
descend.
she offers fractured lullabies
from the bottom step: some days, she laughs
about our christmas cookie sprinkles, smiles
for the stickers she scraped from my bedroom door, and forgives
the swing set’s plastic ropes for thinning as i thickened because this
is moving on, she says, steely eyes shut
to the nauseous color of the walls
that still contain her.
_
Zoe Blue is a full-time student in a small New England town. Between unnecessary trips to the laundromat, she writes poems, most of which are, in some way, notes to self. You can read more of Zoe's work on her in-progress portfolio blog, byzoeblue.tumblr.com.