Writing Prompt in Which a Bird Looks Down at What I Call My Autobiography
For Lucile Clifton
Hey girl! Why is everything all covered in tarps?
I see the shapes of a table
filled to the corners pressed
against all that canvas. Cornucopias
hidden flavors and sound
acid and salt all tucked and stuffed and stuck.
I see you coming over some distant hill
You’re walking toward this space with your white
paint and covers. Why can’t I
make out your face. Are you crying? Kid
are you grown? Woman are you bringing
anyone else with you? I need to know so show me.
I’m looking down and seeing the physique
of sprawling rows lined up lilies and silver
mangoes and hand plates.
There are pearls in strands dangling out
reaching from under their bedcovers.
Bowls heaping with memory-sounds and sour.
Cups and cups wanting to spill over. Pour a glass of light
and swallow this rooms long shadow.
Hey! I see you coming over the hill and I’m waiting.
Why is everything covered? I want answers.
Eat something and drink water and open the door
And open a window and dust off your table and talk
to yourself out loud. Please describe what you see
in vivid detail. I want to hear it.
I can’t stay up here watching forever.
Meal Offering
I saw my mother’s ashes eaten
by her sister we spread
them on a river in summer’s heat
she let them go by bare-fingered
pinch and fling they drifted lazily
below a haze of mosquitos like oil
in a full sink sliding away in halos
she never wiped her hands
to purity later she ate
a white and gray like crushed clay
or something meant to start
the soothing, chalk stalling.
She ate without spoon,
or fork, or napkin
just opaque tips
white and gray
moving to
lips then
tongue then
throat she did
this until her
plate was clean.
I’ve never seen
a mouth consume
in such
a hurry.
Tanya L. Young is a BIPOC writer, visual artist, and PhD student at University of Rhode Island. Her work is featured in publications such as Salt Hill Journal, The Amistad, New York Quarterly, and others. She is a VONA alum. Currently, she is a staff reader for TriQuarterly. She has also read for publications such as Frontier Poetry and Tupelo Press. Find her work at tanyasroom.com
