Haley DiRenzo
Mother
A string of sharp barks rang
round the fogged canyon
before the dog was upon us.
Daggered teeth bared at our ankles,
muscles beneath taught skin
rippling in the morning glow.
Her pups huddled across the road
a mass of miniature bodies.
We kept moving but did not run.
Heads down, breaths whistled shallow.
Finally, she receded, watching
as we escaped around another curve,
no longer a threat. I do not know
what it is to be a mother
but I think it must be something
like a wild thing, capable of carnage
but offering mercy.
Your Blood and Mine
The first boy I ever kissed got bloody noses. Sudden viscous
red dripping down his face as our legs dangled
off playgrounds where we met. Something romantic
in his head tilting back toward my hands, then pressing
tissue to catch this part of him that overflowed.
Scraped knees rushing home as the streetlights
turned on – the way we kept time without phones
in a neighborhood you could roam in
before dark. I picked that wrinkled flesh
over and over, watched fresh blood rush
to the surface, turn to knitted scar cross my skin.
Jealous of my friends’ becoming, I snuck
to bathrooms to check my underwear constantly
looking for that crimson stain of belonging
only for it to show up dingy and brown, so unlike
what I expected I had to ask my mother what it was.
Now I have spent hours rinsing blood
from garments and sheets. It always seems
at first it will never fade but gives up easily
running pink through my hands to the porcelain.
Now my husband slices his finger cooking dinner —
a wet chunk of it left behind stuck
to the knife. I sit him down, wrap a clean cloth
around the wound, watch his face turn white.
Haley DiRenzo is a Colorado writer and attorney specializing in eviction defense. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barely South, Thimble, Gone Lawn, and Ink in Thirds, among others, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. Outside of work and writing, you can find her browsing book stores, brewing tea, and watching movies and live performance in the theater.
