Empires

The mother, in particular, holds her breath until she
hears the cry. Everyone exhales deliberately, the
world resumes. Endings begin early. Expelled from
Eden after Eden

against your will, you’re pushed towards ink and
stars. You leave behind diapers, easy friendships and
wallpaper with curled corners. Excited, you cross off
days with a

thick black marker: days until Christmas, days until
car keys, days until summer. Girl becoming woman
becomes the inherent cycle of hope and loss. She
understands

inevitable like you understand your elbow. Soon you
have to use two hands to count the years that have
passed since you awoke to the smell of frying bacon.
That night, you sit

straight up, lukewarm droplets of sweat cling to your
back. You can’t remember details of the dream but
brief, bright flashes echo in your bones. Truth
always rises and

calendars always end. How long did you think the
wolves would stand on your front porch, politely
waiting for you to answer the bell? Unflinching
mornings prove that not

all distances can be seen in the rear view mirror.
Woman is the rise and fall of possibility until she
becomes unglued from the moon. She abandons fears and
dreams of

purgatory: the stillness before the cry. She may open
her hand in response to your polite request or you may
have to snap her frozen fingers off one by one. Her
unique details,

the ragged, unraveled strings, are woven into the
ribbon of sisterhood; winding past pyramids, around
slave ships, through poisoned air, under blighted soil
and always into

distant pinpoints of brightness. Covered in the
comfort of bloody handprints, you follow it past the
warm feathers of darkness and into the cold wreckage
of the light.

Katie Hall is a mother of two young children, part time business manager and freelance writer in Ohio. Her poetry has previously appeared in “Wise Woman Anthology” from The Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation and “For a Better World 2005: Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice by Greater Cincinnati Artists”. Additionally, her writing has been included on the “Your Voice” column of The Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Woman Magazine.