All you can think of is loss,
that crafty snake that slips in
at the neck and moves
to warm itself on any part
it touches. It slides down
to your sternum and beneath
your breast, and presses
so you won’t miss the fact
of it. That grief has made
Medusa of me is clear
when I sleep, dozens
of baby griefs curled up
beside my head, warming
my brain, that knot of vipers,
though I don’t know what
we have against vipers,
reduced as they are to nothing
but desire and a muscle
that pushes where it leads.
They’re a bit like we are,
feeling our way in absence
of a lodestar, snaking
through Earth’s ribs in search
of the hot red heart.
It’s cold down here, and we
don’t know how to back up
to that dazzling circle of light.
Congress, Winter Session
As the distinguished gentlewoman
from the State of Grief, I would like
to take the floor:
I have always disliked
snowball fights—beauty
turned hard to smack you
in your cheek, a part you had
no choice but to leave
exposed. And snow angels
disappoint—the inevitable footprint
in the heart space, face blank
and aloof as the back of a head.
I propose a resolution:
Let’s reconvene on the mall
to catch snowflakes on our tongues—
let them freeze just a little
so our numbness will free us
to be gentle, to be quiet enough
to hear munitions and scraps
of angels falling all around.
Grief as KitchenAid Mixer
It takes up space
on the counter, but I’ve learned
to look past it, to forget it’s even
there, red and obvious
as a body laid out
on a slab.
I’ll give it this—it’s
versatile, came standard
with hook, beater, whip,
and you can spiralize,
churn—whatever
the recipe demands.
Maybe one day I’ll make
a cake with it, though it’s fuzzy
with dust, and I’ll have to deal
with that—molecules of us
mottling every surface.
Karen Craigo, former Missouri Poet Laureate, has two full-length poetry collections and three chapbooks. She is also an essayist and writes for the Springfield (Missouri) Business Journal. She is nonfiction editor of Mid-American Review, prose poetry editor of Pithead Chapel, and poetry series editor for Moon City Press.