A POEM by STELLA VALLON
Leaving Home Forever
I’ve lost my copy of The Secret Life of Bees/I said to you from under the table/crouched and aching as if I had been wounded/I could not help but think of the mother then/that wooden virgin with a beating red heart/that hummed so loud the floorboards shook/eyes closed and storming/we coated her in honey and wept as it settled into her deep grooves/soothing her weathered body/making up for lost time/our hands raised high above our heads in rapture/there is music playing somewhere nearby but we do not hear it/this is enough/this hum and thump is enough/honey is a balm that heals even God’s wounds/I picked at the flaking linoleum with my
wet bitten fingers/feeling just six and snotting/I’ve lost my copy of The Secret Life of Bees/I said to you from under the table/crouched and aching as if I had been wounded/the bus is running outside