Sophie Herron
VALENTINE’S (EMILY II)

Leaning like a chiaroscuro,
a man outside a bodega says,
You only get one mother.
I want my skin to be better.
Eileen Myles says:
That’s so gay, and I fantasize
about plant tattoos,
consider the best body
for a dandelion. Nothing
compares to pain.

………..But Lluvia, at a wedding in Vermont—

She tells her mother she can be patient,
getting her diapers changed.
Paciencia, she chatters, paciencia.
My hair is blue, and outside
everyone thinks I am competent.
Emily, I don’t want a child.

Sophie Herron received an MFA in poetry from NYU, where they were a Goldwater Fellow. They work at the 92nd Street Y’s Poetry Center and live in Brooklyn with their cat. Their poetry can be found in Bodega.

Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #26.