This selection, chosen by guest editor Kenli Doss, is from Hush by Nikki Ummel (Belle Point Press 2023).
And He Takes and He Takes and He Takes
I. Tess marks time with her daughter’s body:
bones grow in cadence to the hourglass
slip of sand grains
after an overcast beach day
Tess rinses soap suds and
Sarasota sugar sand
from her daughter’s skin
Elah: the valley where David slay Goliath הלאה קמע Emek HaElah
named for overcoming for the slaughter of giants
Elah’s hair tickles kneecaps
swishes like a skirt
Tess braids her daughter’s hair every morning
lays hands on every inch
of coarse curl then ropes
the thick braid around her daughter’s waist
she tethers Elah to her five-year-old body
as old as Tess’ father is dead
as he withered & scabbed
on a worn futon cushion
Elah grew strong in the womb
Tess prayed for the strength
to raise her ןֶבֶ֙א eben stone of help
take aim at her תָיְלָּג
Golyath
II. She bore Elah in mourning in a black maternity dress
finger-painted her daughter with afterbirth
forced her to bear witness as תָיְלָּג Golyath the revealer
giant who uncovers
lingered in the corner
Grief stitched itself
into pituitary
coaxed forth
a manic rush of HGH
Elah is large for her age the x-ray
reveals a skeleton two years too old
םֶצֶע etsem bones/substance/self
too big for her body
Elah is five her skeleton is seven a cage fit to burst
her ribs bars of iron her bones of bronze
Tess stuffs her own mouth with fig leaves
until she chokes on ךֶּֽתְראְַפִּת: tipharah Glory Be
Glory Be Glory Be
Nikki Ummel is a queer artist and has been published by Gulf Coast, The Georgia Review, Black Lawrence Press, and others. She is the 2022 recipient of the Leslie McGrath Poetry Prize and 2023 recipient of the Juxtaprose Poetry Award for her manuscript, Bloom. Nikki is the co-founder of LMNL, an arts organization focused on readings, workshops, and residencies. She has two poetry chapbooks, Hush (Belle Point Press, 2022) and Bayou Sonata (NOLA DNA, 2023), funded by the New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Foundation.
Kenli Doss holds a BA in English and a BA in Theatre-Performance from Jacksonville State University. She is a freelance writer and actress based out of Alabama, and she spends her free time painting scenes from nature or writing poetry for her mom. Ken’s works appear in Something Else (a JSU literary arts journal), Bonemilk II by Gutslut Press, Snowflake Magazine, The Shakespeare Project’s Romeo and Juliet Study Guide and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Study Guide, and The White Cresset Arts Journal.
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