Spina Bifida Princess
(listen to the poem, read by the author)
As they change the gauze on the bulge in her back,
the NICU nurses call her Pumpkin, Sweetie, Miss,
Baby. Until they hear she has three brothers.
That’s when I hear it, “Ooooh, she’s a princess, then!”
& the words I long to utter flap like squeaking bats
about the iron bell of my brain. But I snare these words
before my gums flap away. “Must we define this day-old child
by the patriarchy of her brothers? Without having met
or even seen her yet?” Dancer, intellectual, she might be either.
An engineer who will kick like a Rockette and wear
a rubied tiara as she takes our lawnmower apart
& reassembles it, less a few unnecessary nuts.
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A Cosmic Handoff
(listen to the poem, read by the author)
I have known, as in The Creation naked Adam did,
what it’s like to reach for the hand of God. But
instead of taking mine, I feel He has handed me
a football newly stitched & right out of the factory
& formed like a child dressed in pink and purple flowers.
Fresh white sutures along her spine
are the laces for my fingers. I pat the arc of her back
to release a puff of gas, then tuck her flush
into the crook of my fleshy arm.
No flea-flickers, no reverses, no options,
no punting away. Crammed with X’s and O’s
a playbook can comprise a single play:
Run. Run straight, run fearless. Run into the wreck.
No escape from the churn of it,
the oof and heave and smack of it.
Opponents cock fists, sting forearms deep,
seek to loosen my hold and tear out the ball.
Yet, whether we gain a yard or an inch, I will cradle her
through the gaps in the line, and whatever else occurs
when we are crushed by the pile, I promise
never to fumble, never to ease my grip.
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About the Author
Jeffrey Howard teaches composition, creative writing, and technical communication at Georgia Tech, while also serving as an administrator in the university’s communication center. A former editor of multiple literary magazines and a writer of poetry and nonfiction, Jeffrey lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with his partner and four children.