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      November 29, 2016Nuclear Family WarfareJane Noel Dabate

      Image: “Family Matters” by Alexandra de Kempf. “Nuclear Family Warfare” was written by Jane Noel Dabate for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2016, and selected by Timothy Green as the Editor’s Choice winner.
      The women in my family
      paint their lips red
      in a school teacher’s correcting pen.
      My mother’s lips circled brightest.
      She thinks like a garden does,
      one plagued by men
      with machines in their palms.
      She taught me how to be a lady;
      to correct myself,
      to keep my body succulent and sweet.
      To surrender at the hands
      of pointed fingers.
       
      My father folds his hands and
      shakes the speakers of his fists.
      He thinks like a machine does,
      seven days a week,
      seven numbers a thought.
      He grows from a small stack of flawed books
      as though a book could be anything else.
      As though the frosted metal of his machine
      could do anything besides kill my mother
      and freeze her flowers.
       
      My sister
      goes to sleep and wakes up
      by the ocean.
      She rises to meet seashells
      and falls into beach blanket make-believe.
      Blackout frames sit on the top of her nose
      to drown the screams
      beneath shadowy seawater.
       
      Our mouths hang open
      and unresolved.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the editor

      “There’s so much going on in this collage by Alexandra de Kempf that it’s easy to miss some of the details. Part guide, part microscope, Jane Noel Dabate’s poem serves to focus and slow our attention. Though mostly descriptive, ‘Nuclear Family Warfare’ illuminates the image and adds to its impact with many unforgettable lines.”

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