Liz Marlow

GELLAH’S BADGE

—   Fourth Council of the Lataran, November 1215 

Named for the sun—burning blood, 
skin. Named for laburnum—golden 
rain—fall, drought browning. Named 

for cats’ eyes, finch plumage—
graying beetle covered. The eye
of a needle is a doorway, thread—

bridge collapsing while passersby
look at chests rather than into eyes. 
Heart—buried, oval. This shroud 

is not a window. This shroud is not 
from saved burnt crosses—palm 
branches held together—prayers 

never dripping from a baptismal font.
G-d’s hands catch all humans
falling from their mothers. Hands

raised toward the sun—if the others 
touch me, will I become a mound,
beetle covered, rain washing me away?

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