Simulacra Baby
by Tom Holmes
When I’m born, I hunger cry
for a nipple. I receive
the rubber glove with the pin
hole. After I sleep, I want
a breast. I suck the corners
of this deflated pillow.
A mustached lady coos me
to her cracked hamster bottle
with powdered milk. Even breath
is pumped in. I inhabit
postnatal anxieties
and life in mortal famine,
while mom’s yesterday heartbeat
starves my sunken ear today.
Tom Holmes is the founding editor of Redactions: Poetry & Poetics, and author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently The Cave, which won The Bitter Oleander Press Library of Poetry Book Award for 2013, as well as four chapbooks. His writings about wine, poetry book reviews, and poetry can be found at his blog, The Line Break. Follow him on Twitter: @TheLineBreak
Comments