The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Letter to My Daughter~ By Nicole Rollender

7/24/2013

0 Comments

 
When we put your father in the ground,
I really learned to live with leaving. He always
broke my heart – You, walking out on me again. All you

bring me back is a bone. A bone … but that’s
because I guarded my heart. My ribs stayed
crossed over it, white bone over water. Now,

he sleeps like strawberries, like asparagus, and birds
near his quiet eyes. I’ve tasted shame and want,
their sour and bitters still on my tongue: You

say I deny how I’ve lived, that I won’t account
properly for my stubbornness. Do bindweeds,
beautiful with purple trumpet-flowers that close

to sleep at twilight, apologize for choking plain
bean plants or dusty potatoes? We’re all touched
by the light: an eye for an eye, ashes to ashes, my

dust mingles with yours. You’d want me to say,
Go free. Turn toward the sun. Kiss the wind. Take
flight. But you’re just like your father: My life is a scarred

field. Go, turn away, marigold seeds scattering in autumn.
This prayer or that one, to burn me out of your body.
There will be no seat for me at your table. You’ve never

asked me what I wanted. God have mercy on your soul:
Yes, I would have chosen another life if I was present
at my beginning.


Author Bio:
Nicole Rollender’s poetry and nonfiction have been published in various literary magazines, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Creative Nonfiction, Dark Matter Journal, Enizagam, The Kenning Journal, Literary Mama, Princemere Poetry Journal, Ruminate Magazine, Salt Hill Journal, the strange fruit, Third Wednesday and The Whirlwind Review. She’s the winner of Ruminate Magazine’s 2012 Janet B. McCabe poetry prize for her poem, “Necessary Work,” which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She also won Princemere Poetry Journal’s 2012 Princemere’s Poetry Prize for her poem, “Quickening.” Her poetry chapbook Arrangement of Desire was published by Pudding House Publications in 2007. Nicole, who has an MFA in creative writing from Penn State University, is editor of Stitches magazine, which has been nominated for two Jesse H. Neal Awards and won the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) 2011 Magazine of the Year Award.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: [email protected]