“I Say Alanis Morissette Three Times in the Mirror” & “My Nonna Counts Rosary Beads in a Dream”
by Erika Walsh
I Say Alanis Morissette Three Times in the Mirror
Pink squiggles of light In the glass say hello
Hello not bleeding body Are we worried today
My tits stiffen like plus signs Like the cross I won’t bear
Angelina used to say I’m going to the moon
Her wheelbarrow of animals Her owls and her bears
Yellow circles she painted She said this is where god lives
The circles are houses We live in them too
I kneel scrubbing red puke Off my knees outside her door
Mom sings isn’t it ironic To me inside her stomach
Breaks the cork of a bottle Of wine it transforms
To saltwater to gargle When you are dawn sick
My nonna says remember We will always be your blood
My cat cries like a new mom To lick her wet paw
Fill a glass with white oil Watch it melt into fog
My Nonna Counts Rosary Beads in a Dream
All the good men are dead So you dream of a place
Where good men use their hands To cradle fish oil scoop drops into the dish
Of the saucer of the ashtray Of your dry eyes so they fill
Fate pools wet On your tongue pour sangria
To glass stains bloom red Into cloth like a kind
Of stigmata say yes to the love Your past offers his mouth
Counts to fifteen kneel small In a cupboard he forgets
To seek you etch nails To wood make him
Come closer palms pray Your name hope his
Emerges from letters You were born with can you tell
Where the light is can you open Your mouth your tongue splitting
To serpent dust pools In a dish in a cupboard
On a high shelf specks lick Your long chin light reflects
Erika Walsh is a poet and co-founding editor of A Velvet Giant, a genreless literary journal. Her work has been featured in Hotel Amerika, Hobart, Visible Poetry Project, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Peach Mag, and elsewhere. She was awarded a residency to attend Art Farm Nebraska, works in Manhattan as an editorial assistant, and lives in Brooklyn with her pet cat, Willa.
Sally Egbert is a New York based artist. For over three decades, she has been making paintings, drawings, and installations. Her work is mostly abstract, loosely based on observations from nature. Egbert studied at SUNY, New Paltz. She is a recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Gottlieb Foundation, and The New York State Foundation for the Arts. She has shown nationally and internationally.
