JOANNA C. VALENTE

Fool's Wild (Zero)


i.

Circle of bees humming
in my womb / circle of spiders
crafting webs over & over
after rain railroads 
each thread. Before you
were born, you let out
a cry––

on the walls of my uterus,
you wrote about a young poet's
fingerprints—behind my back
yours have been watermarked.

In other languages, my heart
beats us both alive, wedges
between words I speak, creating
silence to hold a dead child, running
across the Pacific from Seoul––


ii.
 
We share the same waters
baby girl / try my eyes:
take them out as nicely as you can––
don't scrape too hard around 
the edges. In the open, I'll ask you
to stuff papers with the word 
slut on the inside. 

Losing streak, home destroyed
itself. Gonna drown / lonely passed
from generation to generation. 
 
 
 
126 The Paris-American

Joanna C. Valente was born in Manhattan, New York & now resides in Brooklyn. She received her MFA in poetry writing at Sarah Lawrence College. In 2011, Joanna was the recipient of the American Society of Poet’s Prize. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Paris-American, The Atlas Review, El Aleph Press, decomP, Thrush Poetry Journal, La Fovea, The 22 Magazine, among others. In her spare time, she is a mermaid.

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   Next week's poet:

 Joe Betz