Leslie Peterson- Summer Issue 2021
Updated: Jul 5, 2021
"Leslie Peterson grew up in rural middle Georgia, and lives there still, working for a local non-profit and trifling occasionally with poetry and stories. When she's not working or writing, she can be found wrangling a plethora of creatures from cats to quail or coaxing her hazard garden to grow."
Listen to Podcast Interview: https://anchor.fm/melodie-rodgers/episodes/Leslie-Peterson--SOREN-LIT-Summer-issue-2021-e133s3o
i, too, collect bones
by Leslie Peterson
if it doesn't fit,
force it into the joint.
but I digress—first,
you must excavate.
golden relics,
samite,
red mud, hydria,
hercules beetle horns,
shrike wings,
harvestmen fangs and legs
that still writhe after death.
sweep it all away
and dig up the bones
of your mothers.
the teeth of a woman
who stood before the mastodon,
spear in hand,
screaming hoarse triumphs.
the humerus of she
who stood with sword of iron
between intruder and heir,
trembling in fear.
the ossicles that listened
on the edge of the bluff
to the wild ocean roar
and dove into the roiling foam
like a bird of prey
and came up for salty air—
despite
despite
despite
—and did it with a laugh,
for spite.
do not let them rest.
build yourself from their spines and
skint-bare knuckles, and,
let them haunt you.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelesliepeterson/
Listen to Podcast Interview: https://anchor.fm/melodie-rodgers/episodes/Leslie-Peterson--SOREN-LIT-Summer-issue-2021-e133s3o