Two Poems by Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas

After the Miscarriage

She remembers lullabies, once
upon a time and desires goodness,

a cross hanging god. Gone are the days
she ate scones for breakfast drank

afternoon tea, overlooking the universe
blighted by stars. She will forget

about breath, her unmoving belly,
undeniable stillness through birth

cord to love. One drop of redness,
her stomach cut open, a life lost

to stardust, the small death of birds.

 

 

Babylon

When I did prison time
I self-surrendered in exchange
for pink oleanders in my cell.

I bit my tongue to learn
the art of lying. I passed
the days by counting murderers

across the hall and dreamt
of riding my bike through a grove
of trees, the queen of hearts

stuck between the spokes; noisy
keys running over bars. And when
it was just too much to bear I ate

the flowers instead of food and wrote
the names of everyone I’ve loved
on the wall and yours was there

 

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas lives in the Sierra Foothills. She studied at Santa Clara University where she was an English major. She is an eight-time Pushcart nominee, a five-time Best of the Net nominee and the author of the following collections of poetry,: “Epistemology of an Odd Girl”, March Street Press, “Hasty Notes in No Particular Order”, “Letters Under the Banyan Tree” and “The Wanderer’s Dominion”, Aldrich Press, “Breakfast in Winter”, Flutter Press, along with several chapbooks, “Litany of Finger Prayers”, Pudding House Press, “Object of Desire”, Finishing Line Press, “A Thousand Tiny Sorrows”, March Street Press, “The Butterfly Room”, Big Table Books, “The Nightly Suicides”, Kattywompus Press, “Things I Can’t Remember to Forget”, Prolific Press, and the winning chapbook in The Red Ochre Chapbook Contest, “Before I Go to Sleep”, along with her latest collections slated for publication this year with Main Street Rag, “An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium” and “ In the Making of Goodbyes”, Clare Songbird Press. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of online, print magazines and anthologies, including:  The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Poets and Artists, War, Literature and the Arts.  She is the Assistant Editor for The Orchards Poetry Journal and a member of the Sacramento group of poets called Writers on Air. According to family lore she is a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson. www.clgrellaspoetry.com