Maria S. Picone
The world is my mother’s gift
always from her hands to mine soil
pouring through fingers blood letting self
run from her hands to mine insect buzz incandescing from her
hands to mine amethysts winking starlit
missives from her hands to my hands to gift world
soil pouring blood letting buzz incandescing amethyst
winking world circle making world to mother mother to me me to world
world again to mother mother I gift you world the world this world my
world my gift always from my hands to yours
Maria S. Picone (mariaspicone.com/Twitter @mspicone) is a queer Korean American adoptee. Her debut chapbook, Sky Sea Edict, will be released in late 2022. She won the 2020 Cream City Review Summer Poetry Prize and grants from Kenyon Review, GrubStreet, The Juniper Institute, and elsewhere. She is Chestnut Review’s managing editor.