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      September 4, 2018The Tale of the EarthRaquel Vasquez Gilliland

      There is an earth inside you
      and he howls until his feet
      pierce the space
      between your hips.
       
      You scream.
      It sounds
      half-wind,
      half-bear.
       
      Three pushes and he’s out,
      face-down, slippery
      as though covered
      in huckleberry jam.
       
      Put him to your breast,
      lean back against the tree.
      Introduce little Earth
      to ancient Earth.
       
      Tell them both how
      they have oceans
      and moons. Tell them both
      how they’re held with stars.

      from Tales from the House of Vasquez

      Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

      “Nearly two years after having a nervous breakdown after the birth of my son, I started to examine this experience with poetry. Mental illness runs on my mother’s side of the family—with the Vasquez women, specifically—and in searching for the reasons why, I found stories. Some of these are from the lips of my grandmother and mother, some are ones I unearthed inexplicably, from the fertile dirt where poems grow.”

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