Betsy Mars
In the Aftermath of a Rat Invasion
I rescue what I can from gnawed cardboard boxes:
old photos, clippings, ration tickets.
My estranged husband's estranged family
disintegrating in the garage; I try to salvage what I can:
damp embroidery, family recipes,
packets carefully labeled with a name
and First haircut – the names familiar,
but without faces.
Opening each, I stroke the fine hair,
nearly reeling –
even after all these decades,
it slips through my fingers, almost alive.
Indecent to touch somehow.
I fold the thin paper,
speak the name again, tuck it in,
ziplock for protection.
I leave them for my husband outside of his den,
wonder how we can ever discard them.
old photos, clippings, ration tickets.
My estranged husband's estranged family
disintegrating in the garage; I try to salvage what I can:
damp embroidery, family recipes,
packets carefully labeled with a name
and First haircut – the names familiar,
but without faces.
Opening each, I stroke the fine hair,
nearly reeling –
even after all these decades,
it slips through my fingers, almost alive.
Indecent to touch somehow.
I fold the thin paper,
speak the name again, tuck it in,
ziplock for protection.
I leave them for my husband outside of his den,
wonder how we can ever discard them.
Biography
Photo by Stephen Howarth
|
Betsy Mars is a poet, photographer, and educator who recently took up publishing as well. She released her first anthology, Unsheathed: 24 Contemporary Poets Take Up the Knife (Kingly Street Press), in October 2019. She was educated at the University of Southern California, and occasionally puts what she learned to use. Her work has been published in The Blue Nib, The Ekphrastic Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, RATTLE (photography), and numerous other online journals and print anthologies. In January 2019, her first chapbook, Alinea, was published by Picture Show Press. Her love of travel often conflicts with her love of her animals who prefer that she stay at home. Find her on Facebook @ https://m.facebook.com/pg/marsbitsandpieces/posts/ and Twitter @BetsyMars1
|
