Saturday book feature — Becoming Couldn’t Sing for Anyone — Theresa Senato Edwards

of what was,
draw circles counterclockwise /
worry the body is / weight
dessert / just ice.

And the dead shouldn’t
circle its breaking.

But you were born with superstitions
in the gift shop / of / personality

change / not your mistake.

And your body will never be still
in the memory of your parents’ home—

father building basement walls
teaches you, his last daughter, to paint
thin layers with each coat,

ration the paint as if your life depended
on each stroke of color saved

/ to position

a nail like a flagpole,
steady / straight,

fear of missing the small, silver target

unable / to
not wanting to /
build away
an attic crawlspace: a safe gap

for a little girl before sorrow
metastasized.

by Theresa Senato Edwards, first published at SWWIM, from Becoming Couldn’t Sing for Anyone (Small Harbor Publishing, 2022)

Cover Art by Kelly Edwards

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