Status Updates From Bless the Daughter Raised b...

"Maybe we're okay, kid?
I'll rewrite this whole life and this time there'll be so much love,
you won't be able to see beyond it."

"Odor of unknown origin,
she washes her hair, smoke
of unseen fire -- memory smuggled
deep inside dreams lush with grief,
stowed in her blood -- an unrung bell,
an uncalled prayer, bless this child
born on sorrow's palm."

"The refugee's heart has six chambers.
In the first is your mother's unpacked suitcase.
In the second, your father cries into his hands.
The third room is an immigration office,
Your severed legs in the fourth,
In the fifth a uterus -- yours?
The sixth opens with the right papers."