ReRun

English Major's Poem

I can find a metaphor in a glass of milk.
first, the obvious
nourishment contained
milk in a container of heated, frozen sand
the sand a herald of the ocean
mother, maiden, lover, widow-maker
grains of time and salty tears
tears and milk
the constant sorrow and food
of women
the white sands of the Atlantic shore
soft and and small and itching
the first holiday after my sister died
and the family couldn't bear to be at home
and my sister
counting down hours
regressing into a calorie-free childhood
where milk was too rich a drink and glass
too transparent
The windows at night with an ambulance outside
drinking ensure and purging
red lights flashing
the TV on well after midnight
because she couldn't sleep
and my mother, we return to the milk
fighting with her child
her eldest daughter
lasping into seizure with her hands clenched
and cold like glass, and pale, chalky
a glass of milk