GRANDMOTHER AS SCYLLA


Growing old is erasure
—my body hidden   this face 
unseen—while my girl-days 

flick incandescent lilies & 
underfoot moss   dusk 
or dawn swims   as seal or otter   

as almost fish—that gift 
of transmutation   of echolocation   
sound & song   my liquid

my caved hunger would not be
stanched—misshapen   monstrous 
craving   for whatever 

I could swallow   swelling 
the world I wanted   strange 
& lush   salt & shadow.     

By monstrous I mean grandmother 
as spider   as nurture   
as mountain   Mém   Maa. 

I mean moneō   monēre—Latin 
for warning or monstrō   monstrāre—
for showing the girl

what she cannot see   until she
outgrows hunger. Mém   Mémère   
the mouth murmurs for more.