Flow
Judith Terzi
She slips the paper off the birthday gift.
Whose blood am I? Not even a dot. No spot
remains in the picture frame. Seven faces:
her mother and child sealed into their spaces
with father, mother-in-law, husband in slots.
I'm hands down out of the picture. My body
is quivering. The gypsy woman said, her hands,
her hands above her head, her head: "Now mind
your step, your milk will not flow. Give up the wish
for blood inclusion. You're crucified." No matter
how hard I try, I try, I can't be that glossy
under Plexiglass sky. Step-water, not sangre,
I'm a stepping stone, like the gypsy said,
in streams of afterthought, in riverbeds.
Listen to Judith read the poem here:
She slips the paper off the birthday gift.
Whose blood am I? Not even a dot. No spot
remains in the picture frame. Seven faces:
her mother and child sealed into their spaces
with father, mother-in-law, husband in slots.
I'm hands down out of the picture. My body
is quivering. The gypsy woman said, her hands,
her hands above her head, her head: "Now mind
your step, your milk will not flow. Give up the wish
for blood inclusion. You're crucified." No matter
how hard I try, I try, I can't be that glossy
under Plexiglass sky. Step-water, not sangre,
I'm a stepping stone, like the gypsy said,
in streams of afterthought, in riverbeds.
Listen to Judith read the poem here:
Working notes
In "Flow," I wanted to establish an upbeat musical backup as a counterpoint to the grim preoccupation. I kept listening to Lady Gaga's "Bloody Mary" to get the rhythm I wanted. This is the most rhythmic sonnet I've ever written.
About the author
Judith Terzi is the author of Sharing Tabouli (Finishing Line). Recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in American Society: What Poets See (FutureCycle Press); Malala: Future Cycle Press Anthology; Poemeleon; Myrrh, Mothwing, Smoke: Erotic Poems (Tupelo Press); The Prose-Poem Project, and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and Web. She taught high school French for many years as well as English at California State University, Los Angeles, and in Algiers, Algeria.