No
Ransom Left
Atom heart of seed splits
green
leaf its rush
chlorophyll
blasts the stem
light
thickens
drawing
in carbon
--to
earth.
Children
burst
from
our wombs,
ransomed
in afteryears
by
mother tears.
Tracks acid speed
Cuts smokes
pills
Hard
to bear
our
children's suicides
when
they fail;
impossible
when
they succeed.
Pills,
pills, pills,
little
seed spills--
pumped
from
the
gorged gut
in
the nick of time,
exploding
blood vessels
in
veins
seeking
life serum
gushing
from eyes
nose
mouth.
No
pulse left
to
tell the time
of
day.
No
day left
for
mothers
who
find their daughters
on
the floor
in
the blood
passed
on for centuries
of
daughters,
daughters
who should be
mothers not
--this.
Cordelia Hanemann
Cordelia Hanemann, writer and artist, currently
co-hosts Summer Poets, a poetry critique group in Raleigh, NC.
Professor emerita retired English professor, she conducts occasional poetry
workshops and is active with youth poetry in the North Carolina Poetry Society.
She is also a botanical illustrator and lover of all things botanical. She has
published in Atlanta Review, Laurel Review, Ariel Chart and California
Review; in numerous anthologies including best-selling Poems for
the Ukraine and her chapbook. Her poems have been performed by the
Strand Project, featured in select journals, won awards and been nominated for
Pushcarts. She is now working on a novel about her Cajun roots.