The Tattooed Poets Project, Day 18: Rachel Mallino

Today's poem is from Rachel Mallino:

An Open Poem To god


Dear god, there has always been this:
marrow inside of bone. Those retarded

cells that drive nonage to adultery. Elizabeth’s
cancerous swollen lips. I foolishly forgot

the wild dog story only to imagine
a new one: confused bees pollinating

in early spring as she watered
the waxing azaleas; a Queen’s

royalty misunderstood.
It all boils down to sex: mother’s

boney knees beneath
motel sheets as I stared off

into the bends
of brush strokes, art pinned

to tacky walls. The anonymity
of those painters, like my mother’s lovers,

became famous to me. There is forgetting
or the inability to do so. Dear god, if I believe

in anything it is this: bones
and that which runs through them.

- this poem is included in Ms. Mallino's forthcoming chapbook, Inside Bone There’s Always Marrow

Rachel Mallino lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter and various lovable animals. Her most recent publications include Stirring, Boxcar Poetry Review, Weave Magazine and Thirteen Myna Birds. Rachel is the founding editor for Tilt Press and the dysfunctional e-journal Slant. Her chapbook, Inside Bone There’s Always Marrow, is soon forthcoming from Maverick Duck Press.

Head on over to Tattoosday to see one of Rachel's tattoos here.