My.BaptistChart.com
By Abbey Griffin
After Nicole Sealey
“My / father’s mother’s more sweat than blood / half the time.”
I have been anxious. I’ve created
half the scars on my own skin. I can’t focus.
My mother has, my mother’s mother had,
high blood pressure. My father is depressed. My
father’s mother’s more sweat than blood
half the time. My grandfathers are dead or gone.
I sleep fine. I don’t eat. Wellbutrin for
a will to live. B12 for keeping my eyes open.
My eyes are opposite—one near, one far:
compensating. I shiver at shadows. Aunt Susan died
of cancer. DeeDee, a stroke in bed. Uncle
KiKi died at 34, slipped on a cliff during a
night hike, no spotter. I have wasted time
in weighted blankets wondering if I will die
at twilight, too, under a gaping map of
slasher stars. I’m anemic.
My blood wells too easily, like apples, and
my forehead breaks out
oily, Ash Wednesday staining my crown
the shape of Daddy’s fingerprint. I know
from dust we were born and to ashes
we will return, but there is a sunrise
I haven’t seen in Boston Commons and
a memoir, open on a library desk for me.
About the Writer...
Abbey Griffin (she/her) is a writer in Florida. "What the Living Do" by Marie Howe made her fall in love with poetry and decide to devote her life to it. She hopes that everyone can find their own inspiration throughout their lives and a unique understanding and love of the arts.
About the Artist...
Emilia Hickman is a junior at Savannah Arts Academy in Savannah, Georgia. She specializes in realism, and her favorite mediums are drawing and painting.