oh mother – a new poem, read aloud by Featured Artist Mela Blust

When an author reads aloud their own work, they can impart meaning a reader may have missed. Today AHP Featured Artist, Mela Blust, reads aloud a previously unpublished poem, oh mother.

oh mother

you can’t understand this kind of hunger
the unmothered sailing through crowds like ghosts
fishing for the next high
flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood
wine can’t wear this wound down;
a bandaid stuck to a scab
on the heart.

oh mother, the childlike god of sacrifice
tell us it won’t hurt
read us something righteous
to curb worms tunneling into our thoughts
our prayers are balanced on the edge of a razor blade
under the floor
of our church.

they’re handing out new tongues
to replace the ones that burned
with truth
no more dirty words
wash your mouth out
reading corinthians while
our noses delicately bleed.