On the theme of Life Cycle
River’s Bend
My abdomen is bloated with blood
maybe for the last time. Should I revel
in the numb ache of this fullness?
So much longing has been carried with the ebb
and flow from this river basin:
our babies conceived who refused to be born,
our babies conceived who came crushing into this world.
What happens when the river ends?
Recently it’s been seeping through my pants,
onto the chair, down my leg, onto the floor. I keep trying
to spell the word: exaguinate, ecsagunate, exsanguinate,
and have to settle for bloodletting.
My doctor has three words: global endometrial ablation.
Is that like world-wide elation? Whole earth meditation?
4 different pills, an opium suppository, 3 days in bed, a balloon on fire—
it’s hard to tell.
And when only the riverbed remains, what will I be?
The dry part of a woman doesn’t seem like woman at all.
Author Biography
KMA Sullivan‘s poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, Forklift, Ohio, The Nervous Breakdown, PANK, diode, Anti-, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in creative nonfiction and Vermont Studio Center in poetry. She is the editor of Vinyl Poetry and the publisher of YesYes Books.