I will mend your veins, tangles of threads, shout
through inkberry and cobwebs, stir
the thrasher perched on palmetto, scatter
the sapsucker and swamp rabbit
I will don your folded apron, wrap
its supple second skin across my belly, husk
the pockets for your hymns, press smooth
as give of pine needles under bare feet
I will trace your embroidery with my fingertips, pry
off mason jar lids by the front porch window, remember
mottled salamander hiding under torn drapes, his skitter
across glass pane, crescent moon claws tapping ti ti ti ti
I will fix my heart to hold your baptisms and prayers, quilt
them into this lettered olive shell with catbird curve, cradle
the river of your blueprints in my palms, tremble
from sand and salt chrysalis into unfurled swallowtail
your murmurs of mustard seeds
your sturdy psalter of soldering
About the author:
Amanda Hayden is Poet Laureate and award-winning Humanities Professor for Sinclair College. Her debut collection, American Saunter, was published by FlowerSong Press in Fall, 2024. Her first chapbook, How to Tie Tobacco, and second full-length collection, Old World Wings, will be released by Wild Ink Publishing in 2025. She recently won the 2023 River Heron Editor’s Choice Poetry Prize for her poem, “The Faery Bridges.” She lives with her family and many furry rescue babies, including their very special blind, three-legged pup named Vinny Valentine.
Read Fertilizer and Women Have Always Said “I’m Sorry” by Amanda Hayden on Tangled Locks Journal and check out American Saunter on Amazon.
Part of our Winter 2025 Issue. New stories, poems, and essays now through February 2025.
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