In One Universe by K.D. Harryman

Your mother is still alive,

leaving red lipstick

on cloth napkins and

collar points. Your sister

hasn't stolen a thing.

Your father picks at a

cooling pie, answers

the call of his ice with

Jack Daniels and Coke,

watches you like a farmer

watches his shimmering wheat.

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K. D. Harryman is the author of Girls’ Book of Knots (BlazeVox[books], 2023). Her work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day Series, Narrative, Cream City Review, The Greensboro Review, and Raleigh Review among others. She is the recipient of the 2019 Rumi Prize sponsored by Arts & Letters and the 2018 James Hearst Poetry Prize sponsored by North American Review. Her first book, Auto Mechanic's Daughter, was selected by Chris Abani for the Black Goat Poetry Series Imprint at Akashic Books in Brooklyn. She lives with her family in Los Angeles and served as Poetry Editor for Five South.