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2023 James Wright Prize in Poetry

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kapemni

by Kachina Yeager
 

Gingko peeks through my bedroom window, makes eye contact with Not-yet Mother whispers to Oak their room is a lake Oak peers through their own reflection says no that’s a river together they pose like Cottonwood, bending towards rushing water neither river nor lake but confluence soft, silt-bottom spills into rust sand bridges, swirl water alchemized into portal kapemni trees gasp two-toned leaves shaken, stirred child-ghost after child-ghost emerges, tuck themselves in under my sheets, float laundry basket boats to shores of book-islands, peel poems from pages to build home inside of Not-yet Mother finds the child-ghosts that wear her face different shades, holds their hands, eager, tender they ask want to paint a new world with me? Not-yet Mother pulls pigments from laughter, slathers shades of play onto stretched canvas, skin aged under prayer after prayer, paintbrush, plucked from piles of braids that whisper let me rest in this new world, let me have roots. Gingko and Oak lean too far splash into mirror-selves, wake up among stars.

 

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