Confidant
At eight, she divined our haunting, unspoken
union.
But if the truth
had come tumbling from my mouth
like so many
prized pebbles, they would not
have landed upon
an upturned earth, but pulled
me instead into a
deep and flooded quarry.
My father’s
scrutiny, like swells of April ice muscling
northward, ground
ashore and stole
my stuttering
nerve, leaving me breathless
beneath fierce
shards of his chill gaze.
Mother’s capacity
for wonder was ample enough,
rising like the
brown bread she kneaded with fingers
flour-dusted and
pink, but her own body agonized
from shifts on the
pediatric ward.
So she whispered and retreated within,
her voice just
beyond the edge of possible—
and I learned to
abide unfathomable passage.
Gina Marie Bernard
Gina Marie Bernard is a heavily tattooed transgender woman, retired roller derby vixen, and full-time English teacher. She lives in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her daughters, Maddie and Parker, own her heart. Her chapbook Naked, Gettin' Nuder was a 2018-2019 Glass Chapbook series finalist, and has been accepted for publication by Clare Songbirds Publishing. Her work has recently appeared in r.kv.r.y quarterly, The Hunger Journal, Waccamaw Journal, Rat's Ass Review, and Jet Fuel Review
Tags:
Poetry