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A tail, a torso, a tiny face.

A longing, a journey, a deep belief.

A spawning, a fissioning, a bit of tissue

anchored to a psyche,

stitched to a wish.

Watery. Irony. Memory. My

mother, my face, and then

the last thing

she’d ever see, and then

the last words

I’d hear her say: You’re

killing me.

Source: Poetry (April 2011).

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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

This poem originally appeared in the April 2011 issue of Poetry magazine

• Butchers
  by C. K. Williams
• First Storm and Thereafter
  by Scott Cairns
• Rondeau
  by Laura Kasischke

• April 2011 Table of Contents
• Subscribe to Poetry magazine
• About Poetry magazine
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More about this poem

Biography

Poet and novelist Laura Kasischke was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her books of poetry include Wild Brides (1992), Fire and Flower (1998), Dance and Disappear (2002), Gardening in the Dark (2004), Lilies Without (2007), and Space, in Chains (2011), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Kasischke has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the . . .

Continue reading this biography

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Poems by Laura Kasischke

• After Ken Burns
• Ativan
• Game
• Hospital parking lot, April
• Mushrooms

• More poems by Laura Kasischke (8 poems)
  • Rondeau
  • The Second Death
  • You’ve Come Back to Me

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Living, Death, Relationships, Family & Ancestors

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Related

Audio

• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: "Accident Plays a Part in Art"
• Poem of the Day: After Ken Burns
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: The Effect of Small Things
• Poem of the Day: Hospital parking lot, April
• Poem of the Day: In This Order
• Poem of the Day: Mushrooms
• Poetry Off the Shelf: Poetry at the 92nd Street Y
• Poem of the Day: Rondeau
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: Stitched to a Wish
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: "We All Exist, Wetly"

Articles

• Fortune-tellers and Pharmacists by Brian Phillips
• Live All You Can by Michael Robbins
• Six Books by Joel Brouwer

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