Karla Ungurean

Barren

I trace the outline of your butter-smooth features with my little
finger,
As you cry out instinctively for your mama -
She’s not here now,
And my breast is dry, dear one; I cannot help you.
No one is here to satisfy your primal need,
So all I can do is kiss your abrasive wails until they cease
With the peaceful shudder-yawn of exhaustion.
Now I watch your wobbly, round baby feet twitch and flutter
In your lullaby sleep,
Like a cherubic little marionette,
Whose strings are attached to the empty womb
Of the mother from whom you exited just months earlier.
Like a paradox now,
I am suddenly in control of your fate, angel baby,
Because you are resting your head in the crook of my elbow,
And not curled up like a potato bug inside your mother.
She let the doctor yank you from her body and cut you free,
So you could be at the mercy of the world,
And now I am your world.



Surgery

Raped by your scalpel,
Sharp, cold, and unforgiving like your tongue,
I haven’t any other choice in this free world
But to succumb to you in my dead state.
Your gloved fingers pass over my numbed flesh
Like a burglar picking over costume jewelry
In a young widow’s bedroom.
My lead- heavy limbs rest awkwardly in stirrups
As you poke and prod and excavate
Like I am a thanksgiving turkey.
Ever at the mercy of another’s split- decisions,
I let you control my breathing, my bleeding,
And my state of consciousness.
I am no more alive than a corpse on a steel bed.
The more poison that leaks into my veins,
The heavier I get and the further I slip away
From all that is tangible in my sterile new world.
Hours from now I will awaken to bright lights
And masked faces, one them yours,
And whimper groggily in the pain and confusion
We have both imposed upon my body.

Karla Ungurean's poetry has been published by various magazines, including Red Wheelbarrow, The Journal, Down in the Dirt, Splizz, Long Story Short, Speed Poets, Poetic Hours, Struggle Magazine, The Poet’s Art and Black Book Press. Three of her poems will be appearing in the anthology Ceremony Collected, which will be available for order at Barnes and Noble later this year. She graduated in 2005 from Ohio University with a B.A. in Creative Writing/English. While she is first and foremost an avid reader and writer, she is employed as a substitute teacher and English tutor.

 Current Issue:
July 2007

Annabelle Butterworth
Patricia Cook
Joshua Cristiano
Michael Estabrook
Anthony Gee
Taylor Graham
Michael Lee Johnson
Jerry Judge
Stephanie Kemp
Michael Keshigian
Stephanie Kjaerbaek
Brian Mayer
Steve Meador
Jessica Sidler
Karla Ungurean

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