I Will Love Enough to Die Slowly

Poetry
Written By Joshua Wait

by Mikaela Hoover

Dying in the name of some thing
that would not do the same
for you is how I watch my mother live.
Lowly, stumble-steps among the dead. Glancing
at skeletons. White maggots crawl down her neck,
zigzag across her chest and wiggle in through her belly
button.

I only barely ignore the dead,
peel back the scenery to gasp for the sun,
turn back to watch my mother flirt
with anyone not my father. Pick the maggots
off my skin and send them off in the opposite
direction. And when she finally
embraces the skeletons,
I am supposed to take
her place so my daughter
can take mine. But she is not bloody,
nor maggoty. Not mine.

Mikaela Hoover is a graduate student at WashU in St. Louis. They are originally from Iowa. Other work can be found in or is forthcoming in FOOLS, New Moon Magazine, and The Adroit Journal.

Joshua Wait

Joshua Wait studied English at UC Berkeley. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on the relationship between art and poetry in the New York School. He received a Masters in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has served in programs for children, youth, and college students, in an organization addressing climate change, and in the tech industry as a CTO. He currently divides his time between his family and his artistic practice.

https://www.bluerivers.org
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