Poem: Mom's High School Reunion
Mom’s High School Reunion
INT: LADIES ROOM ACROSS FROM THE GYMNASIUM
She knots her hair
debris stuck in her curls
shredded notes
and fragments of glass
stabbing out
from her raven-pitched crown
the objects she carries
as the burden of her birth
show the cracks of labor
the dried river bed
bifurcating across her palms
the crossing
serration of stained glass
clenches the brush
as she covers the potholes of youth
years of advertising campaigns
magazine covers
anti-intellectual agendas
tainted her image
lead in the lipstick
pesticides
in her blush
a flock of ravens in her eyeliner
prayers
stuffed in her crows feet
picking at her cuticles
as she enters the gym
hoping
no one will recognize her