POETRY CORNER
By Adrienne Novy
don’t it always seem to go?
after Kaveh Akbar & Chen Chen
Late last week, a nightmare chirped: Blood blooms
copper blossoms inside my mother’s skull.
As one pupil dilates larger than the other, a plump rising serviceberry, my
father gives consent to operate.
The hallways get longer the later it gets at night;
doctors shave her curls.
Somewhere in Newport, Joni Mitchell stamps her cane with delight, her rst
live performance since her stroke. I imagine her, too, previously intubated.
A stroke is what the opposite of a song is.
Please, please. Bees and Mi Shebeirach.
Slowly, so slowly, my mother steps one grippy-socked foot in front
of the other to Big Yellow Taxi. Her walker steps forward and the nurse with
a gait follows.
Through my mask, I press a kiss on the top of her fuzzy head, a
frankensteined apple. Please, please. Bees and Mi Shebeirach.
Novy is an artist from the suburbs of Chicago (Potawatomi Land). A 2020 graduate from Hamline University’s Creative Writing program, Adrienne’s work has been nominated for Bettering American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net. She is the author of two poetry collections: Crowd Surfing With God (Half Mystic Press, 2018/2023) and Erev Gildene: The Pop-Rock Survival Guide for the Modern Jewish Millennial (Game Over Books, 2022). Adrienne lives on social media at @adriennenovy
Poem curated by Demetrius Amparan. Demetrius is a music artist and poet from the south side of Chicago. He is a nonprofit leader and father to daughters Ella and Addison. His latest work, Hold Me Down, released August 2024.
A weekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
