Last month, in honor of World's Poetry Day, writer and curator, Mahogany L. Browne, shared an introspective poem for us all to enjoy. This month, Browne returns to gift us with a new poem. Please enjoy the following poem from poet, Mahogany L. Browne, entitled: Onion and Celery.
Photo: Mahogany L. Browne
Onion and Celery by Mahogany L. Browne
before my grandma bit back
the spittle
to tell my grandpa about hisself
her hands dishwater worn
& clasped in her lap
her hands swinging a spatula
her hands wielding her good cutting knife
the onion & celery is a gracious marriage
living on the chopping block
before there was a before this moment
I coerced my knuckles into the skyline
& left the radiator hissing
when I see red
I am my father
I believe in nothing but god
& the way I hold my liquor
here is when I smile most like my mother
sitting on a rickety porch
with a tumbler of something numbing
my throbbing hands
I want to heal the heat beneath my ribcage
I think of the before
& the spittle
& the man that carried me to the threshold
between my true self & almost me
the only love of your life is you, I sip
& wait for the rum turned truth serum
to move me far from his ungodly reach
far from the pot steaming over an open fire
a pair of swollen hands
kneeling to no one in particular.
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