Acrostic: Dolores
Bernadette Geyer
Dark fish wriggles free from the lake
Of her mother’s body, gasps in
Luminous air. White-gloved hands
Open to catch her, channel her to safety,
Rock her as the mother’s body turns on itself,
Eclamptic. Her name bestowed on her in a
Sigh. A yoke. A memento. A curse.
Bernadette Geyer is the author of The Scabbard of Her Throat (The Word Works, 2013) and editor of My Cruel Invention: A Contemporary Poetry Anthology (Meerkat Press, 2015). Her poems and translations have appeared in Asymptote, Fourteen Hills, Oxford American, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. Geyer works as a writer, editor, and translator in Berlin, Germany.