WIGGLE WOBBLE ~

PATRICIA SMITH ~

K A T R I N A


I was birthed restless and elsewhere



gut dragging and bulging with ball lightning, slush,

broke through with branches, steel



I was bitch-monikered, hipped, I hefted

a whip rain, a swirling sheet of grit.



Scraping toward the first of you, hungering for wood, walls,

unturned skin. With shifting and frantic mouth, I loudly loved

the slow bones



of elders, fools, and willows.




__________________

Patricia Smith
Blood Dazzler
Coffee House Books
2008