Terry Ann Wright

CEREUS, OR QUEEN OF THE NIGHT


white blooms look like fireworks—
a calculus of the nervous system

in an inverse:  your mother a mathematician,
your father a poet 	you were supposed to be a boy

among your many inheritances: the fear 
you may go mad 	beyond pure calculation

your mother leaves you with her mother 
and refers to you in letters as “it” 	furies,

fairies clamor at your elbow: in one shape now, 
and the next minute in a form most dissimilar

the analytical engine:  	you name your son 
after your father, yearn to be buried with him—

legacies all the way down:	 a flower takes root
in your uterus: 	a white bloom, 	fireworks

       

Terry Ann Wright’s publications include The Hyacinth Review, Ghost Girls, and The Shore; mad honey (2018) by dancing girl press and Nature Studies (2015) by Sadie Girl Press, whose title poem was her third Pushcart Prize nomination; and in anthologies by Cadence Collective, Sadie Girl Press, and Picture Show Press.

   

All rights © Terry Ann Wright