Daughter Ghazal by Nnenna Loveth
“A lakes’ refracted image seen by the bend of light.
What is a daughter if not the sheen and sweat of a mother.
To be a daughter is to carry a tomb to yourself. In my iris
I’ve seen her see resurrection of silent dreams—deferred to be a mother.
Birth is also a loss—fat cells. clumps of hair. blood.
always blood at the beginning. Shearing self from oneself is the cost of being a mother.”
Freak Show by Nghiem Tran
“What pageantry
we are shackled to, shedding
our genteel selves to debase
without perjury this
netherworld messiah,
basilisk you scale with
grievances and banish”