Landlock X
Poems
Debut collections mark an irreversible moment in a poet’s career, even while the previous years of labor and individually published poems testify to both resilience and talent. Sarah Audsley is a Korean American adoptee from Vermont, and her poems, including several in this debut, have appeared in Pleiades, Tupelo Quarterly, New England Review, and Potluck Magazine.
Letter to the Woman on the Plane
You, who transported X number of small
squirming packages from one country to another,
of course, only remember me. I was delightful.
I did not holler the whole way on that long flight.
I let you sleep; although, refused the bottle.
Maybe you thought your job was holy, newly anointing
another white mother; or was it just another job,
delivering bundles made from panting & groping
around in the dark? Dried up semen, tangled bed sheets.
All those mothers waiting in all those terminals, outstretched
arms, fingers extended, as you handed over baby after baby
to home after home, practicing how to re-create family.
Why, even now, do I practice this insistence on beauty?
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
