Travis Cebula
like a bird, bullet, or arrow
for the aggrieved
a flock of black
geese scissors through
the white flannel of October
snow
or
a pair of black scissors flies
through the white flannel
of an old frock
or
a fluff of white hair floats
through an unlit
room to her marital bed
or
a puff of wind cuts
milkweed
from the night’s last caterpillar
or
this shard of soap boils
to stone
& hangs in darkness
or
this accumulation of years
sinks home for this Mother
or this Mother is not that Mother
of yore
is not the grandmother nor your
Mother my mother remembers
or this
Mother kept a cardboard box
of Borax in the cabinet
below her sink & used it in lieu of
Travis Cebula graduated from the MFA program at Naropa University in 2009—the same year he became the founding editor and publisher of Shadow Mountain Press, which specializes in hand-stitched poetry chapbooks. In addition to working at his own press, he is an associate editor at Monkey Puzzle Press and teaches poetry, writing, and literature through the University of Denver’s University College and with the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris, France. He has authored five full-length collections of poetry and six chapbooks, the most recent of which, Dangerous Things to Please a Girl, is available now from BlazeVOX Books. Also, in 2011, Western Michigan University awarded him the Pavel Srut Fellowship for Poetry.
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