M.A. Nicholson
—
Cute, Joyce...
After “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”
‘cept you got it all wrong. I was the one
stuffing my tits lumpy with tissues, standing
on tippy toes—and there
weren’t no such thing as pre
-meditating involved
when he showed up
no baggage, driving
not a convertible but a Durango
& I happened to be
headed to Durango.
Road signs. Yet we both got tongue-
tied-up until I slowslank and no-looking
-back led him to the field—to where
my folks will never find us, though they love
the hunt. I imagine they pushed
the vehicle we abandoned
into a pond before rounding up
some other poor goat, some other
outcast; and broadcasted his smooth eye
-lined bewilder, to blame; then made up
another story to tell
about me.
Creole Recipe for Nonviolence
6 carrots, 10 baby bellas, half of a half of a head
of cabbage, a handful of eggs, scarce, to fry
with basmati and quinoa hailing
from lands oceans apart in
hot sunflower oil spiced
with house-made roasted
garlic roasted
homegrown serrano
red pepper red
wine fresh oregano leaf
in olive oil pulverized
in two large dollops finished
with liquid aminos and coconut oil. Days grow
longer. Xmas tree’s still standing—
light now multicolored for the gras.
Last night’s dinner was raisins, chocolate chips, honey O’s.
For breakfast—only coffee.
All fair trade.
One recipe
I didn’t inherit from my family—soup
from alligator snapping
turtle, beheaded, cuz
after my uncle was crunched under duct
work industrial on the river, Maw Maw lost her hair
and she swore she would never kill again.
M.A. Nicholson is a poet, editor, educator, and M.F.A. graduate from the University of New Orleans, where she served as Associate Poetry Editor for Bayou Magazine. M.A.’s writing appears or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2022, Tilted House Review, New Orleans Review, Diode Poetry Journal, Peauxdunque Review, and elsewhere. Her upcoming debut poetry collection, Around the Gate (The Word Works, 2024), received the Hilary Tham Capital Collection prize.
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