Martha Silano
SUCH A WAY TO GO
But that's how it is. One minute battling traffic. Next, head
in an oven, inner kingdom hospital blue--cool and soothing glacier,
what a
baby boy
comes home in. With a sparkling silver toothbrush, the blanket's unsinged.
De-ashed. Daisy Marble, Butter Sponge removed. And what
satisfaction! Such blue brilliance--spent comets, star cinders--loosened
with Ajax. With force. No wonder she chose this: rising
crescents, soft braids, perfect white. Left her children (bread and
milk).
The pan too large. Under. Over. Not quite done. Tick and bang of a
cold place
heating. Head where flour, water, salt. Peaks before they fell . . .
Copyright 1998, Martha Silano
Martha Silano received her MFA from the University of Washington in
1993. Her first book of poems, What the Truth Tastes Like, won the
William & Kingman Page Poetry Book Award (Nightshade Press). She teaches
English at Edmonds Community College. "Such a Way to Go" first appeared
in Hanging Loose. It also appears in Silano's first book, What
the Truth Tastes Like (Nightshade Press, 1999).
Switched-on Gutenberg/Vol. 4, No. 2
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