Resolve

Resolve

 

 

We divorce. She dissipates. I inhale

 

            wisteria, her hair cascading

            still damp from the bun she gathered in

 

the small hours of morning

 

            or the slivers of her nails

            silvered simpers toeing

           

oblivion. This image crumbles:

 

moon-glow along her shins

light fingering

 

our severed past—

                                                                                                    

            her appendectomy scar burning white

penciled thin, a grimace

 

filtered into shadows

           

            of innuendo and assuasive

            blues moving

           

through hued memory—

 

            her soundless lips mirroring 

            my memorized remorse.

 

I’m bereft, left now to fashion

 

            niddering resolutions

            brittle lead scrawling           

 

vows on crumpled parchment unwilling to be smoothed.

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