Kelly Davio

Sorrow

 

I have considered the following tattoos:
A skull with a little flesh left on, dagger
coming through the eye socket: back of the thigh.
A crown of leaves circling shoulders instead
of my head. A carrot sprouting from my sternum.
Blue flowers uncurling from stems
like old memory. A skull without any flesh
left, dry bone cracking: palm
of the hand. A scatter of fennel: left wrist.
Sparrows carrying blue forget-me-nots.
Rope of vines at the belly. A blue
banner with the text: forget. Scissors
poking a hole through the sternum. A skull
broken to pieces, eye sockets gone: side
of the throat. Blueberries with puckered necks
ragged as old memory, a skull
with a dagger coming through the eye socket.

 

“Sorrow” is reprinted from Burn This House (Red Hen Press, 2013)

 

 

Kelly Davio is the author of the poetry collection Burn This House (Red Hen Press, 2013) and the novel-in-poems Jacob Wrestling (Pink Fish Press, 2014). Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Verse Daily, and others. She is the former Managing Editor of The Los Angeles Review and a current Associate Poetry Editor of Fifth Wednesday Journal. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, and she teaches English as a second language in the greater Seattle area.

 

 

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