5 May 2006 | Vol. 6, No. 1
Recognizing My Mother's Hair in a Silent Film
It was the piano's stock tension just
hefting there that brought to mind
her teeth. Then the swelled O of her
surprise at seeing me; dressed nicely
in a black tie and darker suit. The frame
staggered a bit with my gait while our stare
clicked toward Wellington landing
on the Tuesday that every newsy had off.
So my mother with a story pegged from
her forehead and inked curls outlining
the sweep of her face. Murder! Murder!
He's killed another fair girl. If I had a fedora's
starched heart I'd stir a horn in the streets
to announce our bourgeois surrender. I'd
spread soot and gin tight over our pale faces
before we dive into the river and kneel.
About the author:
Formerly the fiction editor for Sycamore Review, Nicholas Reading is now an MFA poetry candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poetry is forthcoming in the New Orleans Review, Sonora Review, and Zone 3.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Nicholas Reading at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 6, No. 1, where "Recognizing My Mother's Hair in a Silent Film" ran on May 5, 2006. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
