Katie Mertz
PEONY
they find her
lay bags of mulch
inside her sundress
and bury her back in
the lovesick children
pluck her lashes
pedal away
and after long
she is only roots
a lost evolution
to lick like
a handprint left
around a small neck
rub lips against
like a grater
to soft cheese
next year
she will surface
with a prick
the sun
will be quiet
the stars
dead upon
reaching her
I will preface by saying this is actually kind of morbid. The souvenir came from my grandparents' house: a blue, glass bird. It fits in my hand, but it's heavy. When they died, we sold the house, of course, and on that last day there when we were packing, I took it. My grandma sold Avon, and I think that's where it was from. I keep the bird on my desk now, and it sort of acts like a tie between my past and present, a reminder of heritage and love, of the two of them. And also, poetry is mostly birds, right?
Katie Mertz is a Poetry Editor for Whiskey Island and Assistant Poetry Editor for Phantom Limb Press. When she is not doing those things, she is co-curating the BIG BIG MESS Reading Series and making noise at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ilk, Toad le Journal, Banango Street, Birdfeast & others. Her poem "This is How to Be Good" was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize. She lives in Akron, Ohio.