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Meghan Sterling

Bargain

What deal was made as I was lifted from
my mother’s body, praised by my father’s song,
a boy, a boy, guessed at from the bloom of my
swollen genitals. In truth, I was half-lion, half-lamb,
birthed a shivering beast into the wild winter wind
as it stirred the long tendrils of bougainvillea.
Curtains of flowers parting. My mother had
refused medication. What deal was made to ensure
the name carried on, gift to the family, to the land,
the palm trees in a procession down A1A. Cue
the music. Cue the potential. The lipstick to apply.
The rouge.  My mother had pleased them, had delivered
the goods. The women in a circle. The women cooing.
She will be a princess. She will be a doctor’s wife.

Biography

Picture
​Meghan Sterling’s work is forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, Rhino Poetry, Nelle, Colorado Review, Poetry South, and many others, and has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes. Her debut poetry collection, These Few Seeds (Terrapin Books), came out in 2021, and was a Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize in Poetry. Her chapbook, Self-Portrait with Ghosts of the Diaspora (Harbor Editions) her collection, Comfort the Mourners (Everybody Press), and her collection, View from a Borrowed Field, which won Lily Poetry Review’s Paul Nemser Book Prize, are forthcoming in 2023. Read her work at meghansterling.com.
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
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  • Issues
    • Issue 50
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    • Issue 46
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    • Issue 44
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    • Issue 40
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    • 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