From “The Sky Forever” [to say your land vanished]
to say your land vanished into thinness scrap under your feet
when the name feels the same in the mouth who is the most hysterical person
to say I was never meant to the origin moment do you remember laughing
be about poetry’s originating in childhood trauma when the first American boot
hit the ground in a cloud of dust maybe before that you’re killing me
Copyright © 2018 Kimberly Alidio. This poem originally appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review. Used with permission of the author.
Kimberly Alidio
Kimberly Alidio, a poet, essayist, historian, and teacher, is the author of five poetry collections: Traceable Relation (Fonograf Editions, 2025); Teeter (Nightboat Books, 2023), winner of both the Nightboat Poetry Prize and the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry; why letter ellipses (selva oscura, 2020); : once teeth bones coral : (Belladonna*, 2020), a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award; and after projects the resound (Black Radish, 2016).