Michelle Bitting
—
Yet, the Loveliness
Once, Dorianne told me of the moment
her mother finally admitted, apologized
even, for the spotty passage of her child-
hood years, how often they proved
a woods rife with wolves and teeth
and trickery enough to make a girl want
to gaze into the maw of an open oven
and mistake that boundless dark
for a candle. The loveliness I wanted
would have cost my mother nothing—
a thimble of breath, a wisp of floss
the sparrow plucks from the gutter
and threads into her egg chamber
behind my front porch lamp—or,
the last thumb of indigo milk
tugged from breast before
my mother crunched those lovelies
beyond the borders of her garments,
their nickel hooks and eyes,
her secret queendom—
a language of the body
she was not taught to teach
or promote. Oh fragile basket
we swing through thickets
of time, combing the thorns
for brighter berries
we can crush against our chests
like medals or gauze,
staunching the grief, our yearn
for honesty—for a true line
on the tongue—
how sweet the taste of
even one.
Michelle Bitting is the author of five poetry collections, Good Friday Kiss, winner of the inaugural De Novo First Book Award; Notes to the Beloved, which won the Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award; The Couple Who Fell to Earth; Broken Kingdom, winner of the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize; and Nightmares & Miracles (Two Sylvias Press, 2022), winner of the Wilder Prize. Bitting is a lecturer in poetry and creative writing at Loyola Marymount University and in film studies at University of Arizona Global.
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