Jen Jabaily-Blackburn
—
Nursery Song
What belongs to me
what’s mine to tell
it’s hard to know
I remember falling
asleep in a hammock
on the bright olive
green porch
my grandmother
holding my arm
gently turning
my hand my wrist
like the clapper of a bell
saying something
in the neighborhood
of but the abbéss oh feck oh feck
Betty I bet a bet on Fett
Becky odd vet divests a net
“behi a beh a feh a feh”
I don’t know
if I am doing violence
or if violence has been done to me
a gradual stripping
I don’t know which
spirits never to be called
are about to knock
I can’t speak to my render’s
accuracy but it rings
you are safe
you can sleep
I turn your hand
I turn your wrist
you can sleep
you are safe
Jen Jabaily-Blackburn lives with her family in Western Massachusetts and works as admin support for the Poetry Center at Smith College. Twice selected for Best New Poets (2014 and 2016), her most recent work appears in Rattle, The Common and Massachusetts Review.
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