Under Fresh Growth

The full moon
            a cheesecake gone warm,
last of the homemade whipped cream
            runny over breakfast
    strawberries. No one eats.
                        The cream’s separated
                in the fridge.
The kitchen reeks of spoil.
                                                Old home movies
                        slide through the projector
             at the wrong quick pace; everyone looks happier:

             my mother, beaming,
                      hand on her swollen belly—
                                      my brother
                           in his underwear
            and my grandmother’s heels—
                         my face the same
              as my sister’s,
   and my sisters,
              skinned knees and freckle—
    my father with un-flecked hair
and an unburdened smile—
                                                 the past few years have been
                                     straight summer,
                                                 never snow on Christmas,
                                     a still, uncomfortable
                                                 85 degrees
                                         long past midnight.

The lawn mower has been broken
           for weeks.
                               There is clover mixed
                         with the crabgrass now,
            jump cut heat lightning,
mosquito welts.

            I twist stalks of rhubarb
                        out of the garden
             and behead them.






Click here to listen to Emily O'Neill reading "Under Fresh Growth"






Emily O'Neill is a proud Jersey girl who tells loud stories in her inside voice because she'd like to keep you close. Her most recent work appears or is forthcoming in Paper Darts, The Well & Often Reader, Sugar House Review, and FRiGG Magazine. Her poem "A Spade, A Spade" was recently a finalist for Gigantic Sequins first annual poetry contest, judged by Nick Flynn. She edits poetry for Side B Magazine and nonfiction for Printer's Devil Review. You can pick her brain at http://emily-oneill.com.