Melissa Andrés
Poet
About
Melissa Andrés was born
in Cuba and came to the United States with her family at the age of six.
She has a bachelor's degree
in International Studies
from the University of South Florida and an MFA
in Creative Writing from
Sarah Lawrence College.
Recent publications
include Rattle Magazine,
the San Antonio Review,
the Laurel Review,
and Mom Egg Review.
She is at work on her first collection of poetry.
Her influences include:
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edgar Allan Poe
Virginia Woolf
William Blake
Agnes Varda
Salvador Dali
Elizabeth Bishop
My Mother's Daybed
My mother stirred a kettle
of yucca and yams
over a low fire,
smoke rising from embers,
hints of cedar cloaking the air.
I sat on the porch and swung my legs.
My curiosity provoked
my mother's anger when I dangled
my hair over the ashes
to watch them burn.
My brother, his head stuck
between two branches,
was choking. My father,
glancing out the window,
saw him between strokes of his razor.
He saved my brother, carried
him over the mudflat
where we waited. Mounds of clay
cluttered the terrace.
A herd of cattle dotted the field.
My gaze landed
on an ant
carrying a grain of sugar
across the boots
my father left behind.
That night, outside
on my mother's daybed, a firefly
crawled into my ear
and the image of my brother's head
hovered near the rail.
Published in the Laurel Review
Vol 51.1
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