By Birdie Marie Rodriguez
She sailed away
on the feathers
of a heavenly thing
that broke me.
on the feathers
of a heavenly thing
that broke me.
Selah.
There is a wonder
in the sorrow of death
before birth—
to be jealous
of the angels,
to shake a name
from the Tree of Life
that was never
mine to begin with.
The mourning river
is in the wicker
rocking chair, milk
purged from breasts
that don’t know
any better.
This story weaves itself
through the history
of woman, and now I
am the thread looped
through the eye
of the needle, running
into and out and back
into its archaic fabric.
I never wanted this grief,
but it has its hooks in my
head, its thorns in my feet,
and I depend upon it,
even crave it—the peculiar
beast of it—holding and
keeping, tending
to her life
that billows forth
as but a memory
Selah.
Birdie Marie Rodriguez is an accomplished folk artist and an emerging poet. She has a passion for storytelling, and is inspired by history, theology, nature and family. She has been published in Prometheus Dreaming, Esthetic Apostle, and Ever Eden Literary Journal. She lives on the Coastal Plains of North Carolina with her husband and three children.