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Poetry

Poetry Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 28(3) 328-330 ª The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0886109913495812 aff.sagepub.com Lynne Thompson Composition No. 1 If I say the woman who birthed me, betrayed me, you may think that woman badly distilled, needful, but if I say the woman who betrayed me was herself betrayed, you may think of her as gesture, exile, spilled out because when we think of exile or of the innocent gesture —if there’s any such thing as the gesture that’s innocent— we must also think intolerable mirror, the mirror never thinking, of course, that it could become obsession or that it might just peel away. And If I say peel or blunder or mercy, you may think my vision too fragile and you’re half right— from somewhere, unbidden, my mother, betrayed by my birth, hisses: here’s a swaying bridge, cross over, compose the dark. Note. The last italicized phrase is a line from Larry Levis’s ‘‘Elegy With A Chimneysweep Falling Inside It.’’ She, named P_______ At Birth, Speaks to Me, Says you think you know who you are: you do not. You think everything’s great in your gravy train life, your feet up on http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work SAGE

Poetry

Thompson, Lynne
Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work , Volume 28 (3): 3 – Aug 1, 2013
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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2013
ISSN
0886-1099
eISSN
1552-3020
DOI
10.1177/0886109913495812
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 28(3) 328-330 ª The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0886109913495812 aff.sagepub.com Lynne Thompson Composition No. 1 If I say the woman who birthed me, betrayed me, you may think that woman badly distilled, needful, but if I say the woman who betrayed me was herself betrayed, you may think of her as gesture, exile, spilled out because when we think of exile or of the innocent gesture —if there’s any such thing as the gesture that’s innocent— we must also think intolerable mirror, the mirror never thinking, of course, that it could become obsession or that it might just peel away. And If I say peel or blunder or mercy, you may think my vision too fragile and you’re half right— from somewhere, unbidden, my mother, betrayed by my birth, hisses: here’s a swaying bridge, cross over, compose the dark. Note. The last italicized phrase is a line from Larry Levis’s ‘‘Elegy With A Chimneysweep Falling Inside It.’’ She, named P_______ At Birth, Speaks to Me, Says you think you know who you are: you do not. You think everything’s great in your gravy train life, your feet up on

Journal

Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work – SAGE

Published: Aug 1, 2013

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