Ronda Broatch
Ronda Broatch is the author of Shedding Our Skins, (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Some Other Eden, (2005). Her work has been published in RHINO, Atlanta Review, Blackbird, and Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry (Two Sylvias Press). Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Ronda is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, and a May Swenson Poetry Award finalist. Moon Path Press will publish her next collection, due out in spring 2015. A Seattle native, Ronda is a graduate of the University of Washington. Currently, she edits the literary journal, Crab Creek Review.
The Halo of You was Pulled Apart
Days I chip my obsidian skin
Say bulb of percussion say flint
Be sparrow unsparing of word
I have these boxes : of bleeding heart
tulips of daffodils
Little halos gravity-torn
Each night my red fist pulses in my ear
Each night I say no
Mother I delay you Let’s return
to pounding spearheads to ribs
unhinging the snap and separation
of sparrows The tulip loves
its little fist Sometimes
I see in soil little souls splinters
of halo Moon rise at noon
It’s been thirteen years Mother
the homily promised lamplight
said artist said shapeshift
I keep these specimens boxed
In spring I plant you again