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September 11, 2017 | Occasus | Issue 7 | Poetry

2 Poems by Erica McKeen

The Midwife

She is old and says her niece is speaking to her from her sister’s stomach. She rambles on in dialogues such as this:
 
“Babies in the prickly wombs behind clouds
don’t listen to stories,
they tell them
 
“to their mother’s toes
and cry when the ending’s aren’t right.
I mean when the beginnings don’t fit,
like their feet in the placenta
oil under little nails.
 
“Cry,
they won’t hear.
They press their ears but the belly’s
a brick
you’ve locked yourself behind.
 
“Your growth is obscene,
unimaginable, like dreams come to life
too many monsters
and flying children
hearing stories instead of telling them.
 
“Don’t worry,”
she mumbles to her sister’s ear,
“It will be still.”
 
Her sister shivers and pushes away. The midwife is old and dies inexplicably the next day.


The Attic Has No To-Do List

1.
I have things and things to remember
dishes to wash
toilets to clean
bookshelves to dust
and organize, alphabetical
I have dinners and lunches and breakfasts to make
monsters to chase?
beans will do
for today
the bus is always late
ketchup for taste
my bike is broken
the back tire wobbles and won’t inflate
I’m forgetting
(that email, locked, caught in cyberspace)
Mother gives rhubarb for dessert
no ice cream
and the books, disorganized and the bathrooms aren’t clean
I haven’t touched the shower,
stretching weeks.

2.
              In the attic
plain rice sits like maggots on my tongue
            In the attic
stained ferrets crouch in corners, watching
            In the attic
the meds are working but mix memories with my dreams
            In the attic
doctors are people and they cough and snore and puke
            In the attic
I find money and eat it, it’s good on toast
            In the attic
I cut my arm and the blood is sour
            In the attic
a frog lies inside-out on the windowsill
            In the attic
my face screams out of a computer screen
            In the attic
there’s no ice cream, I’ll starve

3.
I’ll starve for words
Give me ketchup for taste
I’ll starve for words
I’ll starve
I’ll cut for words

Where’s my ice cream, Mamma, I want dessert
Cut for words
I’ll starve
Pull out my eyelashes
Forget what sleep means

Mamma, where’s my
I’ll forget for words
Lose my mind for words
Lose my mind
Lose my
Forget
That I’ve forgotten

Mamma, I’ve forgotten something
I’m hungry, where’s my
 
—First do the dishes

Yes, Mamma dear
—And straighten your hair
Mmhmm
—And come over here
But Mamma
—Sit down now
…
—We have things to take care of
Mamma, I’ve forgotten
—Shut up.
Baby I mean
Hush baby don’t say a word.
Shut up now, you’ll get your dessert.

ERICA MCKEEN is a writer of poetry and fiction, with a particular focus on the weird and twisted. Her work has appeared in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 issues of Occasus, multiple issues of The Quilliad, Minola Review, Shirley Magazine, and other publications. Her short story, 'Our Eyes, Our Tongue,' won the 2016 Lillian Kroll prize in creative writing. She has worked with the Toronto-based poet Catriona Wright in the event, 'Couplets,' a collaborative poetry reading series, in June 2017.

Western University
Department of English and Writing Studies
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