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2023 Edith A. Hambie Poetry Prize

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Alumna

by Tyler Ryan

Ambition’s oldest daughter stuffs her mouth with cotton and rubbing alcohol to clear away all her soot. she buys her dresses bleached wrong-white like bone. her black heels come in threes because pairs like to divorce and split on her. Georgia’s sun bakes her until she’s as taut and rosy at the surface as a prize- winning cherry pie. the instructions on her box say that when she starts to ooze bright red bubbling filling, you have the green light to slice, distribute, savor she’s ready to change your world. she makes and makes and makes until her palms are raw from friction. you brought a flashlight with you when she let you into her heart—we all know to do ourselves this favor, or else the search parties we throw in her honor will seem careless. she has a deadbeat brother. the last thing he did for her was hide a spliff in her wedding bouquet so that her last hours owning herself would be a slower dream. anyone who could squeeze into the delivery room was there the day she arrived. her body was blank and ready for branding. the latest gold rush. Ambition cleared many paths for her daughter’s hunters. there have been better mothers, but none quite as productive. none quite as beautiful when storm clouds overhead finally clear. none quite as prideful. i saw her daughter once, called out to her across silvered grass she dared not cross. her name plowed through me like a phantom, spit-shined chapel pews, knocked on cafeteria doors, ushered water bugs out of dormitory showers, and spun a thousand right-white dresses from one spool of thread. “Alumna!”

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