Kindall Fredricks
where has amelia gone where has she been
amelia quiet     as an attic
……………………….where is she?    where is she?
we crawl into her and chew
………………………………………………..make a clergy
………….of our teeth         we search god hung
over us         fat and vascular
……………………….like a mother’s clogged breast
if we were a dreamhouse
……………………….    where would our little doll go?
If we put our ear to her pillow,
           can we bear to hear the owls burn?
The moon drapes
……………………….its white sheet over
………………us                  as we scatter her name
……………………….across a barbarity of flowers
amelia glowing
……………………….like menthol
amelia, gone
……………………….our thirst
…………..on all fours
……….we know we can make a game of
even this
……………………….because we can make a game
of anything
……………………….Dear Friend
Dear Guilt,                             Dear _____
If you tell us what happened, we’ll tell you
……………………….what we knew all along
Kindall Fredricks (she, her) is a practicing registered nurse and poet who received her MFA in creative writing from Sam Houston State University. Her work has appeared in New Letters, Grist, Passages North, Boulevard, North American Review, The Academy of American Poets, and more.
Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #46.
