new from above/ground press: Partial List of Things I’m Responsible For, by Lesley Yalen

Partial List of Things I’m Responsible For
Lesley Yalen
$4

For the birth of my children

For the way they came out

The way they came screaming out

For the moment of conception

The state of the world at that moment

The violence of the world

The way it came screaming

Writhing, horrifying itself

I am responsible for my own birth

The way I curled up against change

Offended by light

The way I changed and changed

But ached and arched

For protection and received it

Until life crashed my face

Lungs heaving

Mouth taking over for tube

Intestines ready to make waste

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Lesley Yalen’s poetry collection The Hearts of Vikings was published by Natural History Press in 2015. She is also the author of two chapbooks, This Elizabeth and The Beginning In. She lives in Western Massachusetts and works at the Yiddish Book Center.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com