Homeland

There are many men missing

legs, and statues open-eyed

to rain. Purple flowers bloom

on trellises along narrow streets, petals

pile like ash under tree limbs. On road

signs, pig-tailed girls carried away by red

balloons. Carved into cathedrals: snakes,

swords, dragons and the stained light

angle-fallen at my feet.

Here, a language gestured

I cannot pronounce though its past

is the same as mine: tongue-root

in my belly. My mother’s tongue, too,

spoke this city. A language she did

not teach me, a few words I absorbed.

Like ghosts, she and my grandmother

speaking at the table, hot bubbles

softening eggs on the stovetop,

sunlight reddening the curtains,

strawberries glittered with sugar

in my hand.

Michelle Bonczek Evory is the author of The Ghosts of Lost Animals, winner of a 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award. Her book Naming the Unnamable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations is taught in creative writing programs throughout the country. She mentors poets at The Poet’s Billow and can be found at www.michellebonczekevory.com.