Ode to la Conquista
Lupita Eyde-Tucker
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2019 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Margaret Reid, Traditional Verse
My mother is an ancient invitation to dream
the saliva left on the hand that was kissed
the perfume of the ocean, the maddening wind
the tightening winch on a torturous reach
My mother is one eye over the shoulder
a Sabbath prayer beneath the breath
the reproach of brine rotting between boards
shrieks of secret spoils in island forests
My mother is something to bet the kingdom on
the illiterate one of noble lineage, sweat pooled
between the scapulae, between eyebrows
my mother is the blood puddled around the throne
My mother, the woman with gold in her veins
the thin air on the mountain, the hole in the earth so deep
