Not a Metaphor

by Laura Foley

 
Not the phone’s jarring interruption
in this moment of wonder—
 
not Dad’s late night news
of our sudden loss of my teenage sister, Alix,
 
not this huge, black-winged bat circling us
as I clutch our newborn daughter, I birthed alone.
 
Not a simile, this child with traces of blood
on her arms—nor these stained sheets
 
I rose from moments ago in hope
of sharing joy so pure I couldn’t feel my feet.
 
Not this bat flapping so close
to the seat of my rational sense, this shadow
 
of death that makes me duck, as I hold
my baby, still nameless, to my chest.


* * * * *

Laura Foley is a bi/queer poet, author of nine poetry collections.  She has won a Narrative Magazine Poetry Prize, The Common Good Books Poetry Prize, The Poetry Box Editor's Choice Chapbook Award, the Bisexual Book Award, Atlanta Review’s Grand Prize and others. Her work has been widely published in such journals as Alaska Quarterly, Valparaiso Poetry Review, American Life in Poetry, and included in numerous anthologies such as How to Love the World and Poetry of Presence.