Liz Marlow

CHAIM RUMKOWSKI REMEMBERS MEETING A GIRL MADE OF SWEET KUGEL

—   Łódź Ghetto, 1942

Break apart
eggs, watching life
ooze from them—

clouds of dust
where stars awaken. 
Watch angel 

hair noodles boil
blonde—fields 
of rapeseed.  A red 

apple sliced into eighths 
reveals eight mouths but 
when diced small enough—

Mars at sunset.
Piecing it back together
creates a blood moon.

Pebbles—ersatz raisins 
in cream—eyes searching 
for a reflection, light 

echoes. If you shake 
a spice box filled 
with dirt, don’t forget 

to pray for cloves, 
cinnamon rather than 
smoke. If you pick 

at an icicle enough,
the shards might become
sugar. If you turn 

it just the right way, it 
becomes a comet. If you 
hold it too long, it vanishes.

Liz Marlow's debut chapbook, They Become Stars, was the winner of the 2019 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. Additionally, her poems have appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Permafrost, Minnesota Review, Tikkun, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Western Michigan University and MBA from the University of Memphis. Currently, she lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband and two children. 

Please visit her at: http://www.lizmarlow.com