Shaving
Father, shaving
starts crying
up above my head.
Mother asks
What is wrong?
I am only three.
He had come
to our house
to shave.
His mother had hidden
his shaving kit—
a little game?
He had found her
that morning,
still staring at the snow
on the TV.
It’s one of the few
memories I have
of my grandmother.
*
ALS
What is it like
to be distilled
to the essence
of who you are?
To pierce
with your eyes
and nothing else?
Your skin poised,
thirsty to feel the touch.
Nerve endings open
and wired.
But nobody
breaks through
the chrysalis.
And you,
longing to reach for
the feathery leaf,
willing it with your eyes
to slowly descend
from the tree
and rest
on your hand.
*
Bar Stool
I was frightened,
so I assembled a bar stool.
First night in the new house—
alone. The peace of the day
melted into the eerie quiet of night.
No blinds or curtains yet.
The house reveals
its pale yellow underbelly
to the outside.
I sit on the floor, unpack the metal parts,
find the tiny tools, the screws.
Lay them all out.
I focus on the instructions,
trying to ignore that anyone passing by
would see me bent over,
fussing over something.
My fingers are clumsy—
the screws slip from them,
the holes do not align.
The stool leg is backwards
and I have to start over.
Finally finished, I sit on it.
The first piece of furniture
in the house. I eye the other
one, and go back down.
The second one goes faster.
I look at the two stools—
white metal legs, grey cushion.
Fear screwed in, screwed in tight.
Tomorrow I will get two more stools
and assemble them at daylight.
That way, I will not know
which ones hold the fear.
*
Dolo Diaz is a poet originally from Spain, living in Palo Alto, California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Right Hand Pointing, Star*Line, Rogue Agent, Book of Matches, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, and others. Her first chapbook Defiant Devotion has been published by Bottlecap Press.