One Poem by Elizabeth Mercurio

 

There is a Girl Inside 

 

after Lucille Clifton 

 

there is a girl inside 

as rowdy as a stray cat. 

she fought her way out 

of the of the belly of the wolf 

to be a grown woman. 

 

she is the last rain-sheened 

dark-hooded crow 

lifting from an old oak tree 

disguised as a used housewife. 

 

she has waited 

for this bliss 

for these new days 

when gray hairs blossom 

 

and the gardener will harvest 

banks and banks  

of roses and peonies 

and the world will be wild 

with her punk rock song.

Elizabeth Mercurio is the author of the chapbooks Doll and Words in a Night Jar. Her work has appeared in Lily Poetry Review, Ample Remains, The Wild Word, Thimble Magazine, Vox Populi, and elsewhere. You can find her at:https://www.elizabethmercurio.com/