The Answer of Alliums
by Shagufta Mulla
I love the way alliums push their happy puffs
out of their spring seat of soil, confidently raising
their arms like a kid who knows the answer.
I wonder what questions were planted that purple
globes can answer on my first de-mothered
Mother’s Day.
Was it something about how some facts fade
from stories, leaving soft flesh to retract
into a wilting, repurposed heap?
Or how some facts stomp out stories, turning young
seeds into concrete? I decide my forgotten
childlike seeds need to breathe,
so I let them confidently wreck my compost—
wreck my concrete,
let them bloom my mouth’s new ownness,
let them eagerly answer me with a burgeoning—
a knowing,
I’m sure I’ve never grown.
Listen to the poem here
out of their spring seat of soil, confidently raising
their arms like a kid who knows the answer.
I wonder what questions were planted that purple
globes can answer on my first de-mothered
Mother’s Day.
Was it something about how some facts fade
from stories, leaving soft flesh to retract
into a wilting, repurposed heap?
Or how some facts stomp out stories, turning young
seeds into concrete? I decide my forgotten
childlike seeds need to breathe,
so I let them confidently wreck my compost—
wreck my concrete,
let them bloom my mouth’s new ownness,
let them eagerly answer me with a burgeoning—
a knowing,
I’m sure I’ve never grown.
Listen to the poem here
 | Shagufta Mulla is the art editor of Peatsmoke Journal and a veterinary content writer. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Santa Fe Literary Review, DiBiase Poetry (2022 Poetry Contest finalist,) Blood Orange Review (2021 Poetry Prize winner,) and the anthology NOMBONO by Sundress Publications. She has a Best of the Net poetry nomination for 2023. She holds a DVM from Colorado State University and a BS from the University of Arizona. Shagufta lives in Oregon and she can be found on Instagram @s.mulla.dvm. |