so much of the world inside: Poems
so much of the world inside
I dreamt I was slurping
up the world’s mother-water
river by river
pushing back fluids
that held me
dreaming I was awake
hearing Angela Garbes speak
of breast milk as a living microbe
sealing the intestinal tract
near where my daughter’s first peeps
may have passed through infant spit
sucked in by the nipple ready to read saliva
ready to read a mother’s body’s
antidotes for illness
instead I tell my baby don’t let anyone
suck the language of water out of you
or erase the backwash inside
the world’s waters your mother’s sacred
huge outrageous rivers wrap you
Photo by Mariusz Prusaczyk on Unsplash
Marriage Spells
Who knew
shitshows
between parents
transfigure lines
of chrome
cruising
Fat Boys?
Who knew
ceremonial
hussies
slung like
snakeskin
across
your back?
Who knew
after midnight
child’s wails
melt even
more of me?
Who knew
we would settle
for ourselves
when marriage
cracked open?
About the Author
Carole Symer is a practicing psychologist in Ann Arbor, working primarily with parents and children, and teaches at New York University. She has authored more than a thousand neuropsychological evaluations to help struggling learners get their educational rights fulfilled, discover the pleasures of reading, and count as human. Her essays and articles have appeared in Michigan Chronicle and Across the Margin.
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