My Wedding Photos

Published in Levee Magazine, Issue 02, 2019

My wedding photos came back and

I didn’t look like memory.

My face a powdered expanse without depth, flat

as a Byzantine Jesus or maybe

the asphalt even. My mother was

like a wax figure under an unforgiving flame, her eyes

fixed somewhere out of focus, out

of the shot. I don’t remember my mother

playing Icarus or me playing the saint or

anything like that.

I remember my feet were swine

packed into two cruel cages, my back was braced

by stiff taffeta and twelve-hour smiles

and wishing I was at home

sleeping instead.