#carmengimenezsmith

[poetsorg]

Today's poem: "Beasts" by Carmen Giménez Smith. 

"My siblings and I archive the blanks in my mother’s memory, / diagnose her in text messages."

Subscribe to Poem-A-Day and get a new, unpublished poem delivered to your inbox five days a week.

[fourwaybooks]

Louise Mathias Reading TONIGHT @ Otis College of Art and Design

Tonight, December 4, at 7:30 pm, Louise Mathias (The Traps) will read with Carmen Gimenez Smith at Otis College of Art and Design in Ahmanson Hall Forum (9045 Lincoln Boulevard) in LA. 

The Traps is available from Four Way Books. 

[fourwaybooks]

TOMORROW Louise Mathias Reading in LA

Louise Mathias (The Traps) and Carmen Gimenez Smith will read tomorrow, December 4, at 7:30 pm, at Otis College of Art and Design in Ahmanson Hall Forum (9045 Lincoln Boulevard) in LA. 

The Traps is available from Four Way Books. 

[fourwaybooks]

Hear Louise Mathias and Carmen Gimenez Smith Read This Wednesday in LA

Louise Mathias (The Traps) and Carmen Gimenez Smith will read this Wednesday, December 4, at 7:30 pm, at Otis College of Art and Design in the Ahmanson Hall Forum (9045 Lincoln Boulevard) in LA, CA. 

The Traps is available from Four Way Books. 

[straightedgey]

Photo of a Girl on a Beach

Once when I was harmless

and didn’t know any better,

a mirror to the front of me

and an ocean behind,

I lay wedged in the middle of daylight,

paper-doll thin, dreaming,

then I vanished. I gave the day a fingerprint,

then forgot.

I sat naked on a towel

on a hot June Monday.

The sun etched the inside of my eyelids,

while a boy dozed at my side.

The smell of all oceans was around us—

steamy salt, shell, and sweat,

but I reached for the distant one.

A tide rose while I slept,

and soon I was alone. Try being

a figure in memory. It’s hollow there.

For truth’s sake, I’ll say she was on a beach

and her eyes were closed.

She was bare in the sand, long,

and the hour took her bit by bit.

  - Carmen Gimenez Smith