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Emily Lake Hansen

Pharaoh's Daughter Keeps a Diary

                        -
Your brother emerged from my womb
with his tongue caught to the low
 
palette of his mouth. For months
when he cried, it hung there
 
below his bottom lip as if tethered
by string, a fish’s cheek snagged
 
on the hook. You arrived freer -
your mouth open wide as a bird’s
 
as I fed you bits of grape, spoonfuls
of oil to aid in digestion. You
 
crawled late, but talked early -
sung hymns, your tongue flirting
 
with each word in the song. At
four, your brother still struggles
 
to separate sounds - his th’s
and l’s and r’s muddled like stew
 
in his mouth. I picture you
sometimes kneeled in front of him,
 
your hands on his cheeks to guide
his lips to speaking. What words
 
I wish I could give you both?
I’d pick mother if I could,
 
a name for you both to call me,
a word tied in your brother’s tongue,
 
caught in your throat like a cold,
like a frog’s croak upon asking.
                        -

Biography

Picture
​Emily Lake Hansen (she/her) is the author of Home and other Duty Stations (Kelsay Books 2020) and the chapbook The Way the Body Had to Travel (dancing girl press 2014). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Atticus Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Rust + Moth, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and SWWIM among others. She is a PhD student at Georgia State University and serves as the poetry editor for Minerva Rising Press. For more information about her work, please visit www.emilylakehansen.com. 
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
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  • Issues
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions