Marginal

1.
I found the box of photos & letters
you said
please destroy my letters

2.
Particularly the ñ’s
the rr’s (the rolled
r’s) and the x’s
that sound of
j’s

3.
I found a shard of your umbilical
cord pressed
between two
yellowing balls
of cotton

4.
You were missing
teeth in some
of the early
photos

5.
Some photos had dates
Aug. ‘65, Jun. ‘66, printed
on the margins

6.
Your marginal life
at those marginal
moments in the gloaming

7.
your face in shadow

8.
your right hand
caught in the last
ray of light

9.
Another photo
you looked
into the distance beyond
the stranger taking
the picture

10.
You bracketed by parents
all of you lacking air
strangled by fear

11.
Why take a picture
then

12.
Why this
moment

13.
Why the strangled
umbilicus?

What I’m Reading:

“As an atheist I don’t have particularly strong opinions about God’s preferred pronouns. However, I do have strong opinions about how language shapes the way we see our world.”

— Arwa Mahdawi / “The Week In Patriarchy”